Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will address question on the tourism sector first. Deputy Kelly correctly identified that the area will need a significant reboot after Covid-19. In the interim we are doing everything we possibly can to keep the edifice of our tourism sector intact through the variety of schemes we have introduced, including the employment wage subsidy scheme, the Covid restrictions support scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment and a variety of other restart grants, low-cost loans and commercial rates waivers. There has been a plethora of initiatives to try to underpin companies and business in the tourism sector. There will be a national economic plan, which is being developed, that will target the tourism sector. The budget will take on board the more than 30 tourism recovery task force recommendations in revitalising this sector as we emerge from this crisis. That plan will take us out to the next five years. Tourism is related to travel and to people's decision-making around their reluctance to travel right now. We have done everything we possibly can over the past while to try to do what we can to support businesses to get them through this very difficult period and to support our airports and connectivity infrastructure.

We will be keeping the trajectory and prevalence of the virus under review. We will keep the public updated on the next steps. As I have said, however, on the 6 January we will be going back to the pre-18 December position of level 3.

Deputy Boyd Barrett instanced the music and performing arts sector. The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Mediawill deal with that issue. I do not get into the micro-operation of schemes. The Government wants to be as fair and transparent as possible in any allocation of funding. I will see that this will be done. I know the Minister is of a similar view. Quite a range of supports have been given to the arts through the Department of Social Protection and the Department Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and very significant additional resources were provided in the budget.

I must take issue with Deputy Paul Murphy in his warped interpretation and distortion of what I said yesterday. The Government is not genuflecting to short-term profit. I do not know does the Deputy represent at all the workers who are desperate to get back to work in the hospitality sector. They want to get back working and are concerned about the long-term sustainability of their jobs. They also want to be back at work. The Government is supporting the economy by €1 billion per week and underpinning work in the economy. Mental well-being is also a consideration. The Central Statistics Office research is very revealing in that regard. There was a whole balancing range of factors that gave rise to the decision to reopen restaurants and hotels from 4 December onwards. It was not about short-term profit. Deputy Murphy is so ideologically trapped that he is blinded to the everyday reality of the person on the street, the people who are out there working and who want to earn money for Christmas. The Deputy is so ideologically trapped that he cannot see the wood for the trees. The Deputy sees everything through a narrow, warped ideological frame. It informs every comment and statement he makes. His assertion was just wrong.

Deputy McDonald asked about cinemas and theatres. Again, what we were trying to do for the Christmas period was to have modifications of level 3 to help people to get through the period with a reasonable quality of life. This included galleries, museums and cinemas because they were not adjudged to be centres where the virus could spread, especially given the previous experience with cinemas. The problem with theatres is pinpointing what is or is not a theatre. We can all think of the obvious ones but it is a bit more complicated when one considers the various venues that present themselves, and with alcohol and so on. That is problematic in the decision-making on that. A call was made that cinemas, which would not add to the spread of the virus, could for the period of December open for people to get some break and some respite.

I have met with representatives from EPIC and we will work on that and engage with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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