Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I start by putting on the record a concern I have about the scale of this legislation and the tight timeframe allowed to us in opposition to submit amendments.

This is a 142-page Bill and it is broad and complicated. As it was only published last week, we only had two working days to submit amendments. I know it is necessary legislation but I request that the Minister and the Department consider the difficulties this has created for Deputies and for their staff behind the scenes.

I will focus my remarks on the European Investment Bank, EIB, guarantee fund. The new pan-European guarantee fund to tackle the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is a welcome development. The fund was endorsed by the European Council on 23 April as part of the overall EU Covid-19 response package. It is timely to see it embedded in our own legislation so we can gain access to those funds under the new guarantee fund. When will the contributors' committee decide on the use of the guarantee? For what purposes will it allow the EIB guarantee fund to be used?

The economic damage done by the Covid-19 pandemic becomes more visible every day. Our microbusinesses, SMEs and family businesses are fighting for survival. They need an immediate injection of liquidity. Most of these businesses have spent a decade working through the debts and loans they accumulated during the previous recession. As a result of this, for them it is a case of once bitten, twice shy. These businesses are very reluctant to take on significant debt. They remember all too well the implications of the last recession and what it was like. The trauma has stayed with many of them. They need a liquidity injection through grants or other mechanisms. These are businesses that were viable. They were closed for public health reasons rather than because they could not trade successfully. They want to get back to work. Liquidity injections need to be the focus of a lot of the short-term measures and must form part of the July stimulus.

Across Europe, we see countries unveiling significant economic stimulus packages. In Britain, we have seen a package of approximately £30 billion announced to invest in the economy in order to save sectors and return them to something like their pre-Covid-19 state. Countries such as Germany and Denmark have gone even further and are investing massive sums of money in targeted and imaginative ways to stimulate their economies. The Germans have launched a €130 billion stimulus package while Denmark aims to ensure its stimulus package will deliver a severely reduced economic contraction that will be lower than the European average.

While the Minister for Finance and the Tánaiste should look at the positive aspects of the British stimulus package, it is our European Union counterparts' economic stimulus packages we should focus on. This will require the State to borrow; however the cost of not investing in affected sectors will be far greater and will cost the State more in both the short and long terms.

Will the Minister of State convey to the Minister for Finance the need to follow our European counterparts and deliver an economic stimulus package, specifically targeting microbusinesses and SMEs in affected sectors, that is both expansive and imaginative and which will also allow businesses to recover, reinvest and re-employ?

In addition to the EIB guarantee fund, we need to see more support from the European Union. The Minister for Finance was recently elected president of the Eurogroup. This role brings a new range of responsibilities and, we hope, opportunities. Will the Minister of State confirm that, through his new role, the Minister for Finance will push for additional supports from the EU? Will those appeals request a support mechanism such as eurobonds?

States are borrowing money and are going to have significant deficits of at least 10% of their GDP without the power to issue the currency in which their public debt is denominated. The European Central Bank enjoys the power of monetising public debts, a privilege which eurozone members do not enjoy. Eurobonds have been suggested as a way to tackle the financial difficulties created by the Covid-19 crisis. They would allow states to borrow new funds at better conditions, supported by the overall rating of states across the eurozone. Will the Minister of State ask the senior Minister to use his position as both Minister for Finance and president of the Eurogroup to challenge the opposition to eurobonds?

Sinn Féin will not oppose this Bill. I hope the supports from the EU are only the first in a range of measures that will ensure social and economic progress and the recovery of member states.

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