Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Tóibín is correct; a €40 billion rescue for the economy is huge. It is probably the second biggest intervention in the history of the State and the biggest after the banking crisis. We all agree it is a much better one in terms of the number of jobs and livelihoods that were protected, but we do now have a national debt approaching a quarter of a trillion euro, which is enormous. We had a relatively low national debt before the banking crisis ten or 12 years ago. We accumulated a lot of debt dealing with the financial crisis. We had started to pay it down and along comes the pandemic. In the context of people calling for measures earlier such as the abolition of the USC, for example, or much better packages than the Government can do today, we must not forget the point Deputy Tóibín made, that we owe a quarter of a trillion euro. We cannot lose sight of that. It may have appeared that there is no limitation on Government spending in recent years, but that is not true and that is going to come back to affect us.

I am sorry, I am digressing. When it comes to what we can do, the EWSS stays in place for a period. The main thing we can do with companies is restructuring. We brought in the SCARP process, which is now under way exactly for that reason, so that companies can restructure their debts and survive.

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