Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Christmas bonus is the example one would hold up as a once-off that has become expected. If it did not happen next Christmas or the one after there would be war. We have brought in a huge amount of measures this year that are one-offs. Whether we can afford to keep them is the question. I think of the disability sector where the Indecon report said the additional living costs for people with disabilities were between €7,900 and something like €12,000 per person, based on 2019 prices. This year we have given a once-off payment of €500 to people with disabilities. That needs to become permanent and incremental if we are to meet our commitments under the UN convention. We have many challenges like that.

We also have a lot of potential but we have to change our thinking on how we are doing business, how we are setting out to do the business and how we are setting out to put in our infrastructure. We should have a lot more discussion on these kinds of things because we must come to some conclusions at some stage on how we are going to move forward. We must be brave and have a vision that we are going to try it. There was mention of companies failing. I do not think companies fail. They just try again, in the sense that if it is not working they are not a failure as they will try something else. They will do that if the confidence is there for them to do it. I thank our guests.