James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here. While I welcome the decision to continue the Covid restriction support scheme and the employment wage subsidy scheme until the end of June 2021, it is important there is not a cliff edge when that date comes around.

I have spent the past number of weeks engaging with employees in different sectors and with management in different areas, including yesterday when Deputy McAuliffe and I engaged with workers in the aviation sector. There is a deep degree of worry about what this date at the end of June will mean, and Deputy McAuliffe would share this view with me. I refer to workers in industries, such as the aviation industry which faces unprecedented levels of difficulty and will face remarkable difficulty in restarting and returning to some degree of normality in terms of what was the case before Covid-19 and the recovery period to get it to that stage. We have to make sure that, as a Government, we do more to protect workers in those sectors and to ensure sector-specific supports are available for those working in aviation, whether pilots, baggage handlers or airport staff. I had the absolute privilege of visiting Cork Airport recently to engage with staff and management there. I would very much appreciate if the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, could look into that particular issue for me.

It is also worth noting that in addition to the 140,000 livelihoods that are supported by aviation, there are also hundreds of thousands of people supported by tourism. Whether they are working in tourism companies or operators or in hospitality in hotels, restaurants or pubs, they are going through extraordinary hardship because of Covid-19. There is no end in sight over the summer months with the current Government plans, some of which I would disagree with. To be honest, we could be much more adventurous in our provision of technology to help live with Covid. I would very much appreciate if the Government could show extra specific supports to those industries.

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