Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I believe that misses the point a bit in terms of how extraordinary the situation is in which businesses found themselves. When we were at the beginning of the pandemic, absolutely suddenly and without warning, revenue streams were cut off from businesses. Yet, as the Minister knows, they had many fixed costs and bills they had to pay. Many businesses could not pay those bills at the time in way that they normally would. They found themselves, therefore, having to default on debt.

What does the Minister have in place for those businesses? I know and welcome the business supports that came thereafter for businesses at that particular time. I do not want a situation where businesses now find that they are up and running, at last, but need an overdraft or a loan and find that they cannot get that because of the credit rating being downgraded, through no fault of their own, from what it was at the beginning. They need assurances for that. I know the Minister will agree that we need to save every possible viable but vulnerable business we can.

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