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

First, we have not been giving money hand over fist to big business. The funding has been directed through wage subsidy schemes and more than €3.5 billion has been paid through the PUP alone. There are 350,000 workers whose jobs are underpinned by the wage subsidy scheme. By any standard that is an extraordinary intervention as the Covid-19 pandemic is an extraordinary event.

This has been necessary because Covid-19 has had an impact on the very sectors mentioned by the Deputy. Covid-19 has made congregation almost impossible. Supporters cannot turn up to matches in the numbers we are used to and the hospitality sector is facing very challenging circumstances. It is not the Government that is the cause of this but Covid-19. The Government has to respond and it has done so with a suite of measures right across the board, including restart grants and human capital initiatives involving more than 200,000 placements, apprenticeships and different schemes through Skillnet Ireland and so on. That is a €200 million initiative.

Likewise we have seen restart grants and loan facilities being made available. The general feedback, understandably, is that small and medium enterprises do not want to pile debt upon debt. The multinational sector, which the Deputy consistently rails against, is not getting huge support but is doing well, particularly with life sciences. That is helping to underpin the economy as - guess what - many Irish-owned small and medium enterprises depend on multinationals. The multinationals employ approximately 250,000 people but for every job they provide, they also create employment in the SME sector. There are 450,000 jobs in that sphere, all told.

The Deputy mentions the self-employed and taxi drivers, and there is a range of others. I accept the point on EPIC and we will engage with the group and representatives of the events industry. Again, the industry has been very badly affected by Covid-19 as the excellent type of economic activity in the sector cannot easily be carried out when the virus is an issue. In the forthcoming budget we will continue to look at ways in which we can assist sectors over and above what we have done already.

We recognise and acknowledge the impact of Covid-19 on those sectors specifically and we have been consistent about that. Severe restrictions have been introduced in Dublin and prior to that they were introduced to Laois, Offaly and Kildare, and we brought in additional measures to help those areas. We will again look at measures that may be introduced to help those specific sectors.

The Deputy argues that we are abandoning jobseekers and there are challenges in social protection. There are 213,000 people on the jobseeker's allowance. There is the issue with carers and there is a motion before the House on child poverty. We must take measures and prioritise those areas outside of the extraordinary interventions we have made with the economy and employment. That must be acknowledged and some budgetary action will be required for measures designed to help people who are really feeling the brunt of the economic downturn arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are specifically looking to see if we can help particular sectors because there is no rates valuation or because people have not been in a position to avail of existing schemes. We are looking to see if we can create bespoke approaches and schemes to help them. That is being looked at in the budget context to see if we can help people with social protection in such cases. We will continue to do that.

Deputy McDonald mentioned the leaving certificate calculated grades. My understanding is the Department would have been alerted to this by the company, Polymetrika International Inc, which initially discovered the error in the code. The company informed the Department about it and it has since corrected that piece of code. It is now operating as intended. The Department of Education and Skills found a second error while performing checks related to rectifying the first error and the Department is very anxious that it would get all the issues resolved and that it would understand fully what was involved before going public to ensure it can be comprehensive in its presentation to students and all involved.

All students registered with the calculated grades student portal will receive communication from the Department. The Minister will make a more comprehensive statement on this later today. It is important that this is comprehensive and communicates directly to the students.

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