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

To answer the Deputy's question directly, I have asked my Department to carry out an assessment of all the measures that are currently due in law to expire at the end of February. I will shortly meet my officials to go through that and consider their assessment of all those measures, the economic impact, the current economic circumstances and so on.

The key issue for me is to make sure we make the best use of taxpayers' money, which is limited by its very nature. We hear every day in this House more and more calls for additional expenditure, in some cases for tax reductions or tax supports in different areas. We must make difficult decisions. This is one of a number of measures that are due to expire. It was introduced as a Covid-19 measure to support the sector in very difficult times. We are now in a situation where the labour market is very strong. In fact, there are labour shortages across a whole range of sectors. We will do a full analysis and make a considered decision taking into account all of the factors.

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