Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

While absolutely necessary, the public health guidelines disproportionately impact the sectors supported by my Department, namely, tourism, culture, arts, Gaeltacht, sports and media. I have had extensive engagement with people representing those working in the tourism and hospitality sector and will continue to do so. As the Deputy said, at the beginning of the year tourism supported 270,000 direct and indirect jobs. That is one in ten of all jobs. The IHF has estimated another 100,000 jobs are at risk. I am aware of the pressure they are under.

On the stay and spend initiative, the purpose of that was to support the accommodation and food sector during the off-season, not during the peak season. That is what was flagged to us as what was needed. There was concern about the season between October and April. However, this is a fast-paced pandemic and we are in a different position now to July when we launched what was a very innovative scheme. The country was reopening then but now we are dealing with much harsher restrictions on already devastated sectors. Given that, it is natural to assess if the initiative is providing the full benefit that was planned in July.

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