Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to return to a couple of issues about which I have spoken previously in the Chamber, although I appreciate I have not had the opportunity to address my comments to the Minister personally, and I thank her for coming into the Chamber to answer questions. I wish to ask about the extent of the payments and who is covered and who is not. We are discussing opening up the economy and society and considering what is safe, whether a distance of 2 m or 1 m between people is required. Until we have answers to those questions, and I do not expect the Minister to comment on this, it is clear that the hospitality and tourism sectors cannot reopen.

We are bringing in detriments to people coming into the country. That may be advisable and, if it is, it is coming in late. It would appear that we are not going to have a tourism sector in Ireland this summer. Like many other Deputies, I come from a constituency that is heavily reliant on tourism, particularly west Clare. Seasonal workers in the sector are not covered by the Covid-19 payment. That was fine at the start and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, explained that the Government had to act in an emergency and one does not get everything right in those circumstances. I accept that and will not find fault with what happened then. However, it has become increasingly apparent that the opening of the tourism season will be pushed ever further out. What happens to the people who worked in the sector? There are students who were in the lucky situation to be working one shift a week and are now getting the €350 a week payment, whereas others, perhaps even the parents of those students, rely on working in the tourism sector, year in and year out, to sustain themselves and their families. They are only getting the unemployment assistance payment.

It is a huge detriment. Of course, the enterprises for which they worked cannot avail of the payments either because they were not in employment at the time that it was brought in. One had to be in employment up to the end of February or, at the latest, on 6 March. They were not in employment then and the enterprise cannot draw down funding to take them on now. Of course, they cannot take them on because they do not know when we will be open for business. There is a dangerous, vicious sort of cycle going on. It was fine of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to state that the Government did not get everything right at the time, but that is a long time ago now. It is even further away, it appears, when the sector is going to open up and we need to do something about it. I appreciate that involves funding but we need to be fair.

The other sector I wish to draw to the Minister's attention - I may not be the first to do so as I did not have the benefit of sitting throughout this - is people over 66 who are self-employed or run a business because they still incur the cost of trying to maintain that business. If they are getting a State pension, that is great for them. That will maintain them but not their business. I can give the Minister one example. It is not somebody who is over 66 but it is somebody who works in the tourism sector. I refer to a man who works in what would be considered, I suppose, a heritage hotel in Clare and has a number of horses. Typically, the guests in the hotel would use his services going out with the horses. He would bring them around the place. Now there are no guests in the hotel. He has no income whatsoever, but what is he to do? The horses are there and they have to be fed every day. They have to be shod. They have to be maintained. He is ringing me on a weekly basis, asking what he is going to do, which horses will starve, or should he shoot them. I say I have no answers. He is a relatively young man. He was a classmate of mine in school. However, there are a number of people who run their own businesses who are in their 60s. He is getting the €350 a week but says that will not pay for his business, but there are a number of people who, because they are over 66, do not even get that and they still have the cost of maintaining a business.

The Minister might address those issues in one minute - if the Minister cannot I am happy to take correspondence - as I am sharing time with Deputy Pringle.

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