Dáil debates

Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Financial Resolutions 2020 - Financial Resolution No. 7: General (Resumed)

 

5:10 pm

Photo of Joe FlahertyJoe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I visualised attending the Dáil on budget day for the first time as a Deputy, little did I realise it would be one of the most significant and historic budgets in the history of this great State of ours. I certainly never imagined it would be set against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis. Many people have already correctly referred to this budget as a wartime budget because it had to be framed within the challenges confronting us as a nation.

Across County Longford businesses are on their knees. Many were savaged by the first lockdown and several have been plunged back into closure again under level 3 restrictions. For weeks we have pleaded with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath, for a suite of measures that would enable these businesses to recalibrate and give the owners of many family-run businesses assurance and encouragement that there is a way back.

The Covid-19 restrictions support scheme is a welcome response, offering much-needed supports to businesses affected by level 3 restrictions in the accommodation, food, arts, recreation and entertainment sectors. They have now been assured of a payment scheme based on weekly turnover from 2019. From today, businesses may apply to the Revenue Commissioners for a cash payment in respect of trading expenses for the period in which restrictions are in place. This takes effect immediately and that money, in turn, may be used to pay for rent and other business-associated costs while a business is closed or customer restrictions are in place.

From the start of this crisis, the hospitality sector has sought a reduction in the VAT rate and the reduction from 13.5% to 9% is certainly welcome. It takes effect from 1 November and will run throughout the course of next year. It will be a lifeline for many small businesses in County Longford and across the country.

I said at the outset that I never imagined budget day taking place against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Equally, I never imagined a budget day with 95% of the hospitality businesses in County Longford closed and hundreds of employees dependent on the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment. As a nation, we are at war with Covid-19. Before this budget, many businesses throughout County Longford were deeply worried and wondered if there would ever be a way back for them. The critics and the hurlers in the ditch will clutch at populism and fallacies to detract from the breadth and enormity of this budget, but it is a budget that truly offers hope. I for one will be proud to face the people of Longford and assure them that this budget delivers on so much of what was sought in education, housing and health. Most crucially of all, it gives hope and a roadmap to a future after Covid-19.

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