Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Later on, Deputy Louise O'Reilly will be launching our proposals that contain all of the measures outlined such as the wage subsidy scheme, the restart grant and rates waivers to support SMEs.

The Tánaiste rightly acknowledged that the tourism sector is the worst hit and it will suffer for the longest as a result of Covid-19. No matter what type of supports we put in we must stimulate demand because 10 million overseas tourists are not coming to the country this year and many of them will not be coming next year. It will not be possible to replace that demand with domestic consumption but we need to try, and a voucher scheme is a way to do that. In my view it is a cost-efficient way to do it as 23% of every euro that is spent in the economy in tourism comes back to the State. The key is to get as many people as possible off the pandemic unemployment payment and back into the tourism, hospitality and accommodation sector.

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