Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is much in this plan that Sinn Féin would have looked for and which is welcome. I acknowledge the investment in rail in Cork, although it is just one part of the jigsaw. We need to be closer to the city centre and ensure that light rail on the east-west and north-south links is expedited. These would serve some of the inner suburbs, as well as potentially the airport. We need to work on this.

There are, however, other issues in this plan which are regressive and there are significant mistakes. We all want to see a situation where everyone who lost his or her job due to the pandemic is back at work and we no longer need the pandemic unemployment payment. We are not at that stage yet, however. Some of the cuts in this programme are completely wrong.

One example of this relates to students. Many students will work when they are in college - I worked - to try to pay their way and contribute to their education. They are going to find it very hard to find jobs at a time when youth unemployment is so high. Now they will not have the pandemic unemployment payment either. That is a significant hit, particularly when so few students avail of the full SUSI grant. I urge the Minister to reconsider that.

Certain sectors are going to take a long time to recover. An obvious one is aviation. It is important, even outside of this programme, that some of the grants that the airports and airlines need are extended. There must be a two or three-year period where that funding continues as it will take that length of time for this sector to recover.

I also want to flag the need for income support to continue. There are workers being temporarily laid off by Aer Lingus. The airline is getting a lot of money from the Government and will continue to do so. The Government should make it a condition with Aer Lingus that it does not lay off those workers or put them on temporary lay-off. Instead, it should keep them on the books and the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS. That will only cost the majority of workers about €50 a week per worker. The cost to Aer Lingus is not enormous. The difference it would make to those workers' terms and conditions, as well as income, would be significant. I urge the Government to make contact with Aer Lingus on that.

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