Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I have no doubt the vast majority of publicans in our country are responsible people who want to open their businesses and I also want their businesses to open. However, I do need to be clear that what we are saying is that pubs and nightclubs will not open any sooner than 10 August. We are not saying they will open on 10 August, we are saying they will open no sooner than 10 August and it will depend on the numbers and how the virus behaves, to use Tony Holohan's term, between now and then. When we published the plan, and I was the one who published it as Taoiseach at the time, to reopen business and society, we made it very clear on day one that it was a plan that could be accelerated if things were going in the right direction, paused if things were going off-line and reversed if needed to be. We were always upfront about that from day one.

In terms of the help we can offer the pubs to open when they do reopen, the wage subsidy scheme is in place and we intend to extend it. They do not have to pay commercial rates and we are looking at whether we can extend this also. They will benefit from the restart grant. I am looking at whether we can make the restart grant better and more attractive, particularly for those who need it the most, which is the hospitality sector including our pubs.

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