Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, the Tánaiste was referring to State and public contracts and we can deal with those under contract law. The Deputy asked me about our agencies, whose number one job has been helping businesses survive and stay open over these last few weeks and months. Only last week, the Deputy and many of her party colleagues were complaining that the application process for assistance was too cumbersome and involved too much red tape. Our focus is on getting supports and help out as quickly as we possibly can. While we expect all our applicants to honour State law and be tax compliant, Enterprise Ireland, LEOs and local authorities are not in a position to track everyone's responsibilities regarding the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission recommendations and I do not think the Deputy expects them to do so in the current climate. She will probably be in here again next week demanding quick action and that is what we are trying to do. A number of other agencies and people under our Department are also responsible for tracking employment legislation and employment law but they are not the ones in charge of getting the money out to the businesses as quickly as possible. Again, our aim is to support businesses to stay open, reopen or restart and survive during these difficult times over the next six to 18 months. They will then hopefully be in a position to grow again, expand and employ more people. That is what we are trying to do here and we need to reach out to all those employers as quickly as we possibly can. There is no proposal to add to the list of requirements they have to comply with to draw down funding at this moment in time.

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