Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his detailed reply. It is very beneficial that he, as Tánaiste, has met the representative organisations. The move to level 5 has had a very significant impact on the domestic economy. There are now 100,000 more people on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, as a result of the move to level 5 than was the case beforehand. Youth unemployment is a serious issue and we should be careful that we do not allow it to become the excepted norm that we can close down businesses and open them again.

I am conscious that the resolution of this depends on how we respond to and deal with the pandemic but I ask the Tánaiste to continue with his engagement with the business representative organisations. We have learned a lot from the lockdowns we have had to date in Ireland. We learned from the first lockdown that we can have schools open. We have learned from all lockdowns that we can have supermarkets open. I ask the Tánaiste to engage with those representative groups as I believe we will learn more about the type of non-essential retail outlets we can open in the future.

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