Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I tabled a parliamentary question earlier in the week regarding an issue I raised in the House last week. I refer to the anomaly in respect of the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will know that when this was first mooted I argued strongly that we need to maintain the link between employees and employers. The TWSS has been very successful in doing that. I understand the reasoning in moving to the employee wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, but the difficulty is that we have a cohort of businesses that are not trading, that are not open and if there was justification for the TWSS up to now, then that justification remains today. It is okay for businesses that are trading and have some cash flow. In that case, the argument can be made for the EWSS. The TWSS, however, should remain in place for businesses that are forced to remain closed because of public health conditions. Unless that scheme is available to those businesses, that link between employers and employees will now be broken.

We have all received correspondence this week from people within the domestic live entertainment industry, a sector with approximately 35,000 employees. They fall into this category, as have employees of public houses up to now. I suspect that will remain the case for the foreseeable future regarding employees of public houses in the Dublin area. They have not had any income coming in since, but have availed of the TWSS. That is now gone, however, and the EWSS does not, in any way, help to support that link between the employer and the employee. It is imperative, therefore, that the TWSS is reintroduced for businesses that the Government has stated must remain closed.

When I am on the issue of the entertainment sector, the reality is that that sector is the lifeblood of the creative sector of our economy. It is a vital part of our economy and a vital part of the tourism package throughout the country, including in my own part of it, Ireland's Hidden Heartlands. If we are going to try to maintain support for the tourism sector, which is a vital part of our economy, it is imperative that we also support the entertainment sector. It was the first sector to be shut down on 12 March.

What has been frustrating for many people in that sector is that they have been totally ignored until very recently. The issues and challenges in that sector have not even been acknowledged. Along with the TWSS, those who are, sadly, unemployed should be able to avail of the higher rate of PUP, that is the higher rate that has been available until this week, because they do not have the choice or the opportunity to go back working. I know pressure has been applied by employers regarding rates of payment for the PUP, and there is a certain amount of justification for that. Within this sector, however, there is no justification for the reduction in the rates of payment and this needs to be looked at again.

Supports have been provided by the Arts Council to part of the creative sector, which is welcome. That does not deal with the entertainment sector, however, because very few of the grants paid out by the Arts Council are paid to that sector. A fund needs to be put in place specifically for those working in the entertainment sector. Until recently, I would have argued in the same terms regarding the coach industry, which is another sector which has been ignored. I was told some time ago that €10 million was being provided to that sector, through Fáilte Ireland. However, no money has come down to that sector and the fear in the entertainment sector is that it is now going to be treated in the same way.

We have major challenges to face in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and what is coming down the tracks with Brexit, but this also a great opportunity to do things differently. When the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Ryan, was on this side of the House he was also articulating this point, while I was trying to implement that approach in Government. Now that he has had a chance to look at some of the files in his Department, he will be able to see exactly what I had been trying to do.

I will put to the Minister something on which I worked diligently when I was in his Department, namely, to have all Government services available online. It is important that people have access to Government services in the context of Covid-19, the lockdown we saw earlier in the year and the further lockdowns that have occurred on a county basis and may affect Dublin later this week. People should not have to rely on an office-based service which can be shut down.

One problem with the so-called mechanism that is being used for online services at the moment is that there is a failure to acknowledge that a cohort of the population will never use technology and are thereby being excluded. For example, all the motor tax offices were closed around the country as a result of the lockdown and the likelihood is that will happen again in Dublin from next week. If one does not have an email address, one cannot get motor tax in this country at present. A person who does not have the requisite IT literacy or does not want to use the online service should be able to go into their local post office where the postmaster or postmistress will do the transaction for them.

A governmental decision was made and a commitment given to put offline Government business through the post office network but, sadly, that has not been implemented since I left office. That is now on the desk of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. We need to go down that road because the mandatory introduction of the EU payments services directive 2 is coming down the track. It will require strong customer authentication to be used in all electronic transactions. Customer identification is going to become far more difficult. We are dealing with those issues in many transactions, whether in Leinster House or with our banks, but those requirements add complexity for older people. Authentication could surely be done through the local post office, providing people with access to a whole range of services to which they do not have access at the moment and must travel to queue in an office to access. Many older people do not want to do that now because of Covid-19 but we are still one decision away from progressing the matter and having front-line service available through local post offices. It has been talked about by every Member in this House when they have sat on the Opposition benches. I know well the vested interests and arguments that are being made in Merrion Street against this. I know those arguments and it will take a determined effort by the Minister to ensure that this happens. If we are serious about having transactions online, encouraging people not to queue in offices and ensuring that people do not have to travel long distances to avail of services, we need to lead by example and put these services in place through the local post office network for people who cannot avail of them online because they do not happen to have an email address or use a smart phone in tandem with their email address as may be a necessity in the not-too-distant future. Those people should not be excluded from online services and the additional discounts that are available to people who apply through an online portal for electricity, broadband and phone contracts. The mechanism is there and I know that the management of An Post is willing to meet the Minister more than halfway in that regard.

The other side of it is that because more people are now moving to electronic payments, the income for postmasters and postmistresses has dramatically fallen. Any postal worker who has been unfortunate enough to have had his or her income reviewed since Covid-19 is assessed on the basis of current transactions which have fallen off a cliff. Many of the smaller rural post offices to which the previous Government committed to support in 2018 and 2017 are no longer viable. We have not put in the additional services that we promised. That was a key part of the agreement between the Government, An Post and the postmasters. The Government has reneged on that aspect of the agreement.

I finally raise with the Minister the retrofitting of homes. I compliment An Post on the action it has taken on the green hub to establish a one-stop shop for people who want to avail of grants and supports for retrofitting their homes. An Post can put people in contact with a contractor, look at what needs to be done with a house and put the finance in place for them. The interest rate is approximately 4.9% but we should be looking to put a 0% interest rate in place. Money is available through the European Investment Bank and other European avenues can provide funding. None of the other financial institutions has bothered going down this road and An Post should be supported to do so. People who want to carry out the retrofitting of their homes should not be penalised and ought to have direct access to zero-interest loans and grants.

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