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

I thank the Deputy. I will speak about the role of the State in respect of an issue such as this.

I also want to appreciate the huge amount of stress that has been caused to all who worked in Debenhams by the decision that has been made and how understandably angry and upset those workers will be at the very sudden loss of their jobs. It is, however, the case that we cannot intervene directly as politicians in issues like that. We do have the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission. We have all of the organisations that are available to help at times of difficulty like this to see if fair outcomes can be reached. Deputy Gannon raised this matter with me a couple of weeks ago and I have written back to him today with more up-to-date information on where this issue stands. I will share that information with Deputy Paul Murphy as well today on conclusion of this question and answer session.

On the future of the payment, what the Deputy would want, and I understand why he would want it, is for me to be in a position to say that the current jobseeker's payments that were available to people before Covid happened and future jobseeker's payments that might be available in the future should be increased to the level of the pandemic unemployment payment. I am not in a position to give that commitment to the Deputy. This is not about dividing and ruling. It is not about trying to treat different parts of our country in different ways. It is simply the challenge that I and the next Government will face of trying to ensure that what we are doing is affordable. The Deputy makes the claim to me about austerity. I expect we will have a deficit this year of at least €23 billion. I indicated to Deputy Michael McGrath that it will be at the higher end of the forecast we published in the stability programme update. We are borrowing to sustain the incomes of citizens precisely at the time we should be doing so. I would hope the Deputy would welcome that and welcome what we are doing.

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