Dáil debates

Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:10 pm

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

The virus, Covid-19, has wreaked havoc and caused a lot of damage in many sectors of the economy, creating a lot of unemployment as a result. It is not the public health restrictions per sethat have done that, but the virus. The public health restrictions are there to protect people and society from the virus. That is the context. As a result of the virus and Covid-19, the Government has introduced unprecedented interventions to support incomes and jobs and to keep as many businesses viable as possible so that when we emerge from Covid, those businesses can restart and reboot, maintain jobs and create further jobs into the future in the context of a national recovery. To date, approximately €28 billion has been provided for Covid-related spending programmes, almost half of which was on the PUP and wage subsidy schemes. That is in addition to core programmes, including in the areas of enterprise and the labour market, and a range of other supports that were provided.

The Government has been very clear, proactive and ahead of the situation in clarifying some time ago that it would retain all supports until the end of June. We said there would be no cliff edge in terms of the withdrawal of supports. We have been very clear about that.

The Government strategy for getting the virus case numbers, hospitalisation levels and intensive care admissions down has worked. The people of Ireland have made it work by adhering to the guidelines and regulations. The vast majority have done so and, as a result, we are in a much better position than anticipated or modelled, which is good. Obviously, we are dealing with a variant that is particularly transmissible but, that said, what we said at the end of March we would do in April has been done. We have secured the reopening of schools and childcare facilities. Residential construction has resumed, as has outdoor sports training for under 18s as well as tennis, golf and a number of other areas. We have delivered what we said we would deliver. We also said we would examine a whole range of areas for the month of May.

The important economic point to make is that as sectors reopen and people return to work, there will be a natural reduction in the number of people availing of pandemic supports. The macroeconomic advice from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the European Central Bank, ECB, is to maintain the approach we have adopted so far of underpinning income and business supports so that we can recover from the devastating impact of this pandemic on the economy and people's livelihoods. Many sectors are suffering and have endured a lot. Retail, hospitality, tourism, travel and aviation have suffered globally and at a European level as well as in Ireland. The Government has a range of initiatives under way, including the national economic recovery plan, which will be designed to calibrate supports to help businesses to restart and reboot, the national development plan, the submission we will make for funding under the European recovery and resilience facility and the Brexit adjustment reserve.

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