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

To be fair, the Government has acted in an unprecedented way in intervening in the economy to support incomes, particularly through the pandemic unemployment payment. Some €7.3 billion has been paid out to date. We have made it very clear that there will be no cliff edge fall-off in the context of the supports. We stated, well in advance, that supports will continue until the end of June. We are making progress in reopening society and the economy. That is important in order to get things moving again. We must then look at how we can help sectors that have suffered more than others to restart, create employment and get people working again. It will be a key objective of Government to get people working again. Our approach all along has been to support people through income supports and to support enterprises through wage subsidy schemes and other programmes designed to keep businesses intact.

See this speech in context