Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Cahill. I welcome this debate which is taking place in the run-up to the budget, which will, presumably, represent the next instalment of Government measures to alleviate the impact of Covid-19. Covid-19 does not discriminate between individuals but it does have a profoundly different affect on different sectors of the economy. In terms of our economy, the biopharma and tech industries are booming while the hospitality and tourism sectors have been hammered. The level of wages in the businesses or industries that have been relatively unaffected by Covid tends to be much higher than those in the sectors which are most affected.

I am wondering whether the Government's approach of one size fits all is the proper one. Much money has been spent but I cannot get away from the notion that sometimes if one spends just a little more, or alternatively if the same money is spent in a different way, or in a combination of both approaches, a much better result can be achieved. The question arises as to whether the sectors that are most affected should get most help. The Minister would of course say that different measures are in place for the different sectors but there is no doubt that with the big measures, there is uniformity.

I cite for example the main initiative taken by the Government, the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. In the affected sectors, one of the main indications to me anyway, and I am sure the same applies to everybody else, is that the TWSS should not have been suspended in its original form on 1 September but rather continued to the following April for these sectors. There is a mighty difference between the TWSS and the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, with the former being much more valuable than the latter. In many cases, the difference between the TWSS and EWSS would be the difference between life and death for a business. It would determine if it can recover or re-establish itself.

The economists have expressed some surprise that income tax returns have remained particularly stable because there was an expectation that income tax returns would drop by approximately €2 billion because of Covid-19. That has not happened and the reason is obvious. We have a very steeply progressive income tax system where above average wage earners pay the vast majority of income tax. This illustrates quite dramatically and very clearly that the people most affected by this pandemic are those on low wages, young people, part-time workers and people in the gig economy. In other words, these are the less well-off.

These people are most affected by the pandemic and from now we must focus on helping them. Otherwise we will have what the economists like to refer to as a "K-shaped" recovery with differences according to household income. It would deepen inequality in a society that is already very unequal if we leave those people behind. I dread to think of a large pool of young, semi-skilled or part-time workers being separated from the economic activity of their own country or left in a position where they have no emigration safety valve for the first time since the Second World War. This would have a scarring effect on society and it will not have a good effect on politics and social cohesion.

Many of these more vulnerable sectors, including wet pubs, have been closed for six months but they have enormous fixed costs. The people in these areas are very unhappy with the measures that have been put in place by the Government to assist them and which will not help many of them to reopen. There will be a consequent effect, particularly in local communities or rural areas.

Somebody mentioned travel agencies and these are in a unique position. They have seen no income since last March but they had to return much of the gross income they took in last year as holidays were cancelled. The live entertainment sector has 35,000 people involved and it is worth €3.5 billion to the economy. People also mentioned the taxi industry, which has been absolutely devastated.

If we took those particularly vulnerable sectors of the economy and determined the number of workers directly involved before calculating the cost of continuing the TWSS until next April for those sectors, if it could be done legally or constitutionally, I wonder what the extra cost would be. I know the extension of the EWSS is costing approximately €2.3 billion and I cannot imagine my proposal would add greatly to that cost because it concerns particular sectors.

The Government should not focus on the deficit. I know we must worry about our deficit but so must every other country in the world. All the efforts against the pandemic around the world are largely financed by debt anyway. We must focus on the primary task of getting our economy rebooted while at the same time keeping society together.

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