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

I do not disagree with what the Deputy is saying. We did not put all of the resources into saving so many businesses and jobs during the pandemic to have those businesses fail now during this energy crisis.

What I have learned from experience from helping to lead the country through a number of crises: the bailout and the banking crisis ten or 11 years ago with the Labour Party; Brexit and avoiding a hard border and no deal; and more recently the pandemic, is that one needs to be dynamic in one’s response. The worst-case scenario, which is highly unlikely, is of gas being unavailable or totally unaffordable, in which case businesses cannot operate. We then would something like the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, or the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. The businesses would be surviving and the staff would continue to get paid but they would not be able to operate. I hope we are not in that worst-case scenario. The more likely scenario is of businesses still operating but having to do so with very high energy bills. That is why one’s intervention would be more linked to helping them with the bills than an employment subsidy. It depends on where we end up and we will need to be flexible and dynamic.

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