Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, originally 600,000-odd people were on various pandemic-related schemes but that is now down to 200,000. Many people got back to work as the economy reopened during the summer. In addition, 213,000 people are on the basic jobseeker's allowance. A range of others are getting different social protection payments. One must be fair to all concerned as the horizon lengthens regarding the impact of Covid. We need to think beyond April because the financial impacts of Covid will stretch beyond April. That relates to people's incomes. I take the Deputy's point that, of course, it is very distressing for people to lose work owing to the restrictions that need to be put in place to protect public health as a result of Covid-19. I understand that and certain sectors are faring worse than others.

The August returns show that normality almost came back in many different sectors of the economy. Clearly, hospitality, tourism, travel and all of those areas are the hardest hit. We have to see what we can do to underpin supports for that sector over the coming months, in addition to the very significant suite of measures that have already been introduced for that sector to try to maintain employment in it.

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