John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I said that I trust the Minister on this. My experience of any bonuses offered is that they end up being taxed and so the bonus that comes into an individual's hand is minor. I do not want that to be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm for this. I am really enthusiastic, as the Minister clearly is, to recognise some of the real heroes in the early days of Covid. If we remember them, and it is so easy to forget, some of the real heroes include those who were stacking the shelves and who kept food on the table when we thought there were going to be rushes and panic buying etc. It also includes those who collected our waste. Bonuses get taxed and people may end up with very little and there are many ways of marking, including financially, the extraordinarily heroic efforts people made. That heroism needs to be marked in many ways and in a lasting way. I support bonuses but one gets a bonus and then it is gone. Society needs to look at ways of seriously symbolically marking how everyone contributed, whether it was in a small or big way. I am not a capitalist but those big employers kept this economy going right through the pandemic. They continue to do so and that ensured we had significant and sufficient revenues for the State to be able to fulfil its side of the contract it has with its citizens.

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