Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not believe it is fair to characterise the recovery fund as one dealing with Covid contingencies; it is not. It is designed to be used to support the economy and act as a stimulus rather than to support service areas. It is important to make that point.

Let me address the estimated Covid expenditure next year of €9 billion. Deputy Doherty described it as keeping the lights on but it is about services and policy decisions already made on the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy scheme for the period up to the end of March. There are also important supports for employment, transport, education and all the other areas where we know there will be additional expenditure in 2021. The recovery fund is, therefore, a stimulus and it is about supporting recovery and jobs.

I agree with the Deputy that we need to be agile and nimble next year. The idea that we can stand up on Tuesday and set out with a degree of certainty everything we need to do next year is not realistic in the circumstances we face. We will, however, do the best we can to provide as much certainty as possible and to give hope to people so they may be confident we will get through this, that the economy will recover and that the Government is willing to provide the resources necessary to bring about and support the recovery. The recovery fund is going to be an important part-----