Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The real problem with the Labour Party approach is that a zero Covid strategy will kill off the entire domestic economy. Interestingly, it will not impact on the largest companies in the world today, some of which operate out of Ireland, including Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Google and the large multinationals. Ireland's small and medium enterprises account for approximately 45% of GDP and they employ 70% of the workforce. The lockdowns are having a severe impact on those sectors. I cannot understand that the Labour Party, a party of the working class, wants to have this regressive strategy imposed on them.

The Government, through ongoing lockdowns, is already putting the labour market into a deep hole. Most small businesses had between 30 and 90 days of working capital at the beginning of the pandemic. In the real world, this meant that this capital has been used up by last summer. When the Government schemes run out, the real extent of the pain will emerge. The longer the lockdown is kept in place, the less likelihood there is of these businesses reopening. That is not acceptable. I note the number of suicides, as Deputy Tóibín and others have done, and the number of small businesses the banks have foreclosed on, which must make payments, including insurance payments. This utopian idea that we can have a zero Covid strategy is pie in the sky. We cannot do so. It will not work. It is as simple as that.

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