Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is our focus as a Department, working with the retail sector, the business community and all those enterprises that are involved in providing products and services, some of which will be in greater demand around the month of December and for the Christmas season. We are working and will work with all those sectors through the various Departments on a range of supports and initiatives. The Tánaiste referred to some earlier around communication plans, marketing plans, how we manage the public realm and make sure that the products can be sourced. That is what we are involved in. In the past seven or eight months, many of the companies the Deputy referred to have availed of the numerous grants available, including the trading online voucher scheme and the online retail voucher scheme being offered through Enterprise Ireland. I believe seven or eight companies from the Deputy's own county of Kerry availed of that scheme and I announced others yesterday.

Companies are adapting. They are finding ways to reach their customers in a safer way as we are living with Covid-19. That is exactly what we are involved in but to be absolutely clear to everybody, it will be possible to purchase all the products people want during the month of December. All the companies involved in the growing and the production of all those products will be able to find a way to trade. That is what we are about and it is what we have been doing with the sector over the past couple of months. Every area, including business organisations, retail and sporting, will be able to trade. That is what we will try to work on also.

See this speech in context