Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There have been discussions about the budgetary rules, and the escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact has now been triggered. My expectation is that almost all, if not all, countries will be in a position whereby their deficits are considerably above what would be expected in normal times under the terms of the Stability and Growth Pact. There has not yet been a discussion regarding the normalisation of those rules again because we are a long way away from that point now. In any discussions that are happening at European level, there is an appreciation that deficits will be going up for this year, as will debt.

I do not think we should be seeing one part of this economic response as dealing with the harm of Covid and then another phase of this as the recovery phase because it all blends into one. The wage subsidy scheme, for example, is a recovery plan for the Irish economy. In the absence of that scheme, tens of thousands companies might not have been around today. They merge in a different way than would have been the case previously.

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