Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murphy. If he is fair to us and looks at all the major actions that have been taken by the Government to date, he will find they have been taken in order to bail out people and workers. There has been a massive expansion of the welfare budget in the past couple of weeks in order to provide the pandemic unemployment payment of €350 per week. If one compares that to the payment in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, where it is less than £100 per week, or to what is happening in other countries, that is a very big bailout of people and workers.

We have also introduced sick pay arrangements that we have never had before in this country. Again, that is very much a bailout of people and workers. The temporary wage subsidy scheme is now being availed of by 40,000 or 50,000 companies. That money only goes to companies if they are paying it to their workers. It is not a bailout of the bosses, shareholders or people who own those companies. Money is going to companies for the sole purpose of paying a portion of the salaries of their workers.

On the airline industry, as far as I understand it the law has not changed and people are entitled to a cash refund. I will have to check that, but my knowledge is that the law has not changed. However, we have to be practical about this. I do not want to see airlines fail. Whether they are publicly or privately owned is not my major concern. I want to see Ryanair and Aer Lingus operate some time later in the summer, possibly August, and I would not like to be in a situation whereby we have to bail out airlines because they have failed.

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