Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with much of what has been said on either side of the House on the subject we are dealing with, which is expenditure. We need to be brave. Whatever the rights and wrongs people claim from a left or right background on fiscal prudence versus austerity, and whatever rules pertained previously, we are now in a completely different situation. We are talking in economic terms of something that is akin to how Europe was at the end of the Second World War, and what we need is a Marshall plan type solution.

That involves huge amounts of money to buoy up and sustain what we have, as well as ensuring we can stimulate when necessary.

At this point, we are obviously worried as Covid-19 numbers get worse, along with the negative outworkings for people's health. We are also concerned about the economic impact that this will have. First and foremost, we need to stabilise and then ensure that we keep as much business, as many jobs and as much of our society in operation until we get to the far end of this. I accept we do not quite know. While we have not had the clarity we would have liked with the Government's roadmap for the next six to nine months, we must accept that we could be looking at a situation closer to two years. We have to prepare for all of this and be incredibly brave.

As several Members have said, we all know sectors which cannot foresee any major changes to their businesses, their jobs or how they can open up. We had taxi drivers this week outside this House in large numbers putting clear asks to the Government. I have even heard Members from the Government parties espouse some of these asks. Some of these asks are monetary but there are straightforward ones such as extending the ten-year rule on taxi vehicles which would allow people get through this gap at this point in time. We need to look at those sorts of solutions.

Beyond that, we need to build and maintain a capacity for testing, tracing and isolating. We will absolutely destroy whatever good economic work has been done if we cannot keep the show on the road. The reality is that we do not have the capacity required. I mentioned in the House earlier and last night that there was a piece on "Six One News" on the difficulty getting particular reagents for use in rapid testing. Rapid testing got this House through a particular fiasco recently. As I said yesterday, I was thankful that the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, was Covid negative. It was absolutely vital, however, that he was able to get access to a rapid test. We need to ensure as many people as possible can get access to such tests.

The high Covid rate is a significant issue coming up in every constituency. My constituency, Louth, has worrying figures. We also have instances in schools. School and public health authorities are doing all they can. It is concerning, however. The only part of this that we have complete control over and which can improve matters is testing.

Beyond that, we must realise the moneys we can draw down from Europe. We need to ensure we have a conversation with our European neighbours on introducing imaginative responses. As much as we accept in certain cases people will require loans, there is a significant difficulty with the 4:1 loan to grant ratio on what has been offered to date. This must be rectified.

While we must deal with taxi drivers, we must also deal with travel agents who find themselves in situations in which they will no longer able to operate. While some businesses are down 30% to 50%, travel agents are down nearly 100%. We need to ensure moneys are made available to stabilise and stimulate, to keep the businesses we will need after this point and to continue with the society we have. If we do not do this, we will be facing into an abyss which none of us can contemplate.

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