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

We all have a concern and that is why we are committed to this and there is a fund set aside to work with businesses and to support them right through the final stages of Covid-19, and recovery from that into the new year. There will be more announcements in that space today. We are very much committed to saving these jobs. I have not seen the Deputy’s committee report on the Duffy Cahill report or read it in detail but it is wrong in the view of the Government, and I will keep saying this, to continually say that implementation of the Duffy Cahill report could have prevented what happened in Debenhams. That is not the case and the authors very clearly said that also. We have engaged in work with the Duffy Cahill report and with numerous other reports. We have reviewed the legislation. We are making the changes and have a plan of action. This has been accepted by all relevant stakeholders in this space, including by the employees of Debenhams. Separate from that, a fund was put in place to assist the Debenhams workers which opened on 1 November of this year, if I remember correctly. It is open for two years and approximately 458 of those workers have engaged with that and are using those funds to assist them find new work or start new businesses, which is a positive development.

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