Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for contributing to the debate. As they highlighted, the Bill is an important piece of housekeeping in which the Oireachtas has to engage every year to ensure we have a proper legal basis for the moneys that were spent over the course of that year and to ensure spending can continue into the following year before the House approves the Estimates for that year.

The issues raised over the course of this debate were many and varied. A number of Deputies highlighted the exceptional support that has been provided by way of public expenditure in the context of Covid-19. It is worth underlining that a total of €30 billion in direct expenditure measures has been provided over 2020 and 2021. The figure for last year was €16.6 billion in Covid-related spending, while the equivalent figure for the current year is about €13.4 billion. The main elements of that €30 billion speak to our response and where our priorities lie as a country in the handling of Covid-19 and the impact it has had on the people.

For example, the Department of Social Protection accounted for an additional €19 billion over the past two calendar years. More than €9 billion of that sum related to the pandemic unemployment payment, which of course was set up in emergency circumstances in March 2020 when hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs overnight. It was an appropriate response to ensure households would continue to be supported during that period and the period since then. In addition, the employment wage subsidy scheme and its predecessor, the temporary wage subsidy scheme, account for just over €9 billion over that period. Over the course of this debate, Deputies again raised issues with the continuation of that scheme, but it has helped to pay the wages, in part or in full, of about 700,000 workers at some point in the past 21 months or so. Overall, it has been a remarkable success in protecting that connection between the employer and the employee over that period.

Of course, the Department of Health and the HSE account for a large share of the additional expenditure. There has been almost €4.5 billion in additional Covid-related spending for the Department of Health since early 2020, which was used to improve capacity in the system and for personal protective equipment, PPE, test and trace resources, the vaccination programme and so on. In addition, we provided almost €900 million in additional funding to the Department of Education, primarily to ensure our schools could reopen and remain open in the face of the very challenging environment they have faced with Covid-19. Similarly, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science received an additional sum of almost €600 million in the context of Covid-19 over that period.

In addition to the wage subsidy schemes, we have provided further supports to businesses to ensure the continuation of employment, for example, through the local authority rates waiver, with almost €1.5 billion provided. We have refunded local authorities 100% of the value of that rates waiver, which was passed on to qualifying businesses. There have also been restart grants and other very important measures in the July stimulus package, and we have sustained funding in a number of other key policy areas such as transport. Because of the imposition of public health restrictions, there was a significant reduction over the past two years in the number of people using our public transport system and the State has had to step in and provide extra support.

Both last year and this year, the State has done what it does best, namely, support our people, invest in public services and infrastructure and ensure we can continue to look after people to the best of our ability. The Bill is important in that it will underpin that spending in 2021 and enable us to continue with that spending in the early part of next year until the Estimates come back from the committees and are passed. I thank all the Deputies for their contributions and look forward to the remaining Stages of the Bill.

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