Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are sharing time. I urge the Government and this House to start working immediately on a new deal for workers facing the prospect of protracted or long-term unemployment. I hear that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, briefed the Green Party and Fianna Fáil about potential economic devastation and a return to a 1980s-style depression with long-term unemployment. I do not think we should sit back like astrologers and wonder which way the stars are moving or which way the wind is blowing. We need to proactively act to ensure we do not return to a period of mass, protracted unemployment.

We need a new deal for workers, we need to be ambitious and we need to think outside the box to ensure that people get back to work, have decent incomes and are not thrown on the scrapheap. I refer to arts workers.

In the foreseeable future, live entertainment is in deep trouble. That is the reason I asked for the debate tonight. We need answers for workers in the arts. We need answers for taxi drivers, 20,000 of whom have had their industry decimated, and where for the foreseeable future that is likely to be the case. Two thousand Debenhams workers thrown on the scrapheap by a cynical company could be the first of many who will face that situation. How are driving instructors to do driving tests or driving lessons in the foreseeable future? There are many others. I believe that this House has to act urgently to work on a new deal for these workers. Indeed, this relates to the issue of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. We cannot wait weeks for these discussions to happen. We need committees set up immediately to discuss and bring in people from these affected sectors to hear from them. We got it wrong on childcare because we did not listen to the childcare providers. We need the Debenhams workers in here next week to hear from them. We need to hear from the arts workers. We need to hear from the taxi drivers. We need to hear from the driving instructors. We need these people in here to help guide us as to how we will prevent a return to mass unemployment and develop a new deal that ensures that does not happen. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's response to that. We must respond and not let ourselves return to a period of mass sustained unemployment.

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