Dáil debates

Thursday, 3 June 2021

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Covid-19 Pandemic Supports

9:30 am

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Every business and sector is different. We have a set of schemes which operate horizontally, as my officials like to say, across all sectors. We also have some dedicated schemes to help particular sectors that are being very badly affected. The Deputy will be aware that the other day the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, opened the music and entertainment business assistance scheme, which is a special scheme for musicians and artists and people who work in that sector. Together we have developed an events sector scheme which will be open for applications later this month. As I mentioned, the second round of the small business assistance scheme will now apply to people who do not operate from rateable premises such as businesses that operate from home, for example, which had been left out previously.

Regarding the recruitment of staff, I met all of the employer representative bodies in the last two days. Without exception, they all said they are having difficulty recruiting staff and getting staff back. When one drills down through that, it is for many different reasons. This idea of people refusing to go back to work is overstated. Many people have gone home to central and eastern Europe. Others have got on with their lives and have found jobs in other sectors. We are going to find ourselves in a strange space in a few months' time when we have hundreds of thousands of people on welfare but also hundreds of thousands of vacancies. We need to fix that mismatch.

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