Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to bring up Lesbos and the call that we would take 400 of those who are being evacuated after the fires there. We should consider seriously doing that. As awful and harsh as the situation we face with Covid-19 is, these are people who are fleeing absolutely appalling situations, who have been driven from their homes and live in appalling conditions in holding camps in Lesbos. We need to put out the hand of support. It is very much in line with the tradition of this country as a people who side with the oppressed and the downtrodden. We should bear in mind our own history of exile in that regard.

On the economic and fiscal considerations of the EU relating to Covid-19, the Government in refusing our request, to date at least, to restore the pandemic unemployment payment has cited fiscal concerns.

I want to be clear on this because I met representatives from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council yesterday at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, and they made clear that the normal restraints of the fiscal treaty are off the table and do not impact the situation. In fact, they argued strongly that as long as the situation remained uncertain and there were high levels of unemployment as a result of restrictions, income subsidies should be maintained and it would be good to put as much money into the economy as possible. I asked explicitly whether the council would have a problem from a fiscal point of view if we restored the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the PUP, and the representatives basically said they had no problem with that and there was no fiscal difficulty because of the current extraordinary situation and the ability to borrow money cheaply. They were sanguine about the issue of debt. The Taoiseach should bear that in mind and consider what they are saying in terms of PUP restoration.

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