Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the food and beverage industry, if we go into a level three lockdown in other counties, they cannot exactly serve food and drink outside between October and February. We need a plan here for when accommodation providers and tour operators lose their bookings, and we know all about the events sector too. I ask the Taoiseach to put sectoral changes into the budget for these specific industries. I also ask the Taoiseach to consider what extra can be done when lockdowns are put in place. It is obvious now that we will have to consider more localised lockdowns rather than county-specific lockdowns, something we would support. I agree that we cannot add on debt, but we need to look at a scheme such as the Kurzarbeitscheme in Germany, which is very successful. I ask the Taoiseach to consider such a scheme during his budget considerations, because I do not believe we can get through the winter, and I say this with a lot of knowledge. We will lose a whole sector or a large percentage of the sector if we do not plan for the next six months and our budget has to do that.

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