Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

The point of my question is that there are so many victims of the current Covid restrictions in this country that it is hard to separate them but, obviously, small businesses have been massacred because of Covid and because of the restrictions over the past six months. We have seen a large amount of pubs close which have left the isolated even further isolated around the country. We are seeing hundreds of crèches, childcare services, shops, cafés and restaurants all closing for good. Individuals invested vast amounts of money and their own time and sweat into sustaining these businesses up until now and those businesses are being closed completely and all the jobs that exist in those businesses are being lost as well. One of the questions that we in Aontú have been putting to the Government over the past while is that we need to be able to quantify the cost of the restrictions to know adequately whether or not the restrictions are disproportionate. Indeed, Ireland has the sixth strictest restrictions on the planet at present even though we are third from the bottom with regards the level of Covid that exists in the country in European terms.

Fifty-one per cent of retail has migrated online. That is an astounding figure. The majority of retail that exists in these twenty-six counties is currently happening online. Many of those who have gone online will never go back to physical retail in the future. Amazon is booming while many small Irish businesses are going bust.

We in Aontú have put forward a Bill that looks for a 25% decrease in the wages of TDs and Senators during this period. The sentence, "We are all in this together", is being thrown around like confetti and it is plainly not true. The wages of TDs are going upwards and everybody else's wages are going downwards.

What I am asking the Chief Whip to answer is, given that they are making serious decisions on so many people's lives, if he will quantify the number of businesses that are closed for good as a result of these restrictions.

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