Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As a result of what happened in Debenhams, the Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy and myself met with the employees at Debenhams and said that in line with the programme for Government, we would review the legislation to see if we could strengthen, enhance and make it better. It was from that that the plan of action would come. It is not a case of saying that if we implemented all of the recommendations of the Duffy Cahill report that would have solved Debenhams or any other redundancies.

On potential redundancies in the months ahead, I think the Deputy will appreciate that the response during Covid-19 over the past 18 months has been to try to keep businesses open and to prevent the loss of jobs. Every effort has gone into that. Yes, it is possible there will be some redundancies in the new year but we will do everything we can to prevent that from happening and that is what the business supports are there for.

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