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

Deputy Dillon raised the really important role of the tourism industry in our economy and society. I remember very well that back in 2011, when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, we had just experienced an appalling economic crash, with mass unemployment, mass emigration, empty houses and falling incomes. Three industries lifted us out of that, namely, the multinationals, farmers and the food industry, and the tourism industry. I do not think we could have recovered in the way we did without them. The tourism industry received help, with a reduced VAT rate, The Gathering, the abolition of the travel tax and a lot of investment in attractions. One of the best things about the sector is that it was able to create jobs in all parts of the country and often in places where the only other jobs might be linked to agriculture or the public sector. The tourism industry needs help again. The taking out of so much bed stock because of the refugee crisis has had a very severe impact on certain businesses in certain parts of the country.

How can we help? The €250 million fund for small business will benefit small businesses such as hospitality businesses by helping them with their costs. There is €10 million set aside for a targeted scheme, particularly for businesses that have seen their footfall drop as a consequence of accommodation being used for refugees. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is working that out and has had a meeting with the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation. She wants to make sure the scheme is targeted to help those businesses to survive and pivot. We have also done some other things in the budget, including increasing the VAT thresholds, which will help a lot of very small businesses to have better cash flow. The Minister is correctly very keen for me to point out that the money we provide for Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and all those important bodies is 30% higher than it was in 2019. If we strip out the exceptional payments that were made during the Covid period, the budget for next year is still 30% higher than it was prior to Covid. That gives Tourism Ireland the marketing money it needs to promote Ireland abroad and Fáilte Ireland the money it needs to improve attractions around the country.

Deputy Boyd Barrett correctly said the housing crisis is not just a social problem but is also an economic problem. That is absolutely true, not to the extent that we are losing a lot of investment or jobs at the moment, but there certainly is a high risk of that. It certainly contributes to employers struggling to recruit; not as much as full employment does but it definitely is a factor. As I have said previously, we keep the social housing income limits under review. They have been increased recently and we may well increase them again in line with prices. The Deputy suggested we should buy up new developments for cost rental in the way we do for social housing.

I do not think that is a bad idea; we just need to be careful. Many new developments are being bought up by approved housing bodies, with funding from the Government, for social housing. They are often estates, houses and apartments that people would have hoped to buy and own. That is causing some difficulties for us around the country.

What we need is more supply, and significantly more supply. Of the 30,000 new homes built last year, I am not sure how many of them were on the open market for sale. When you strip out own-builds, social housing and apartments built by funds and others, probably only about one third of those 30,000 houses were actually available for people to purchase. If we were to step up the purchase of homes for cost rental, there could be even fewer homes for people to buy, and we have to be aware of that because we should prioritise homeownership. The solution, of course, is more new housing of all types, getting up from 30,000 and closer to 40,000 or 45,000 in the years ahead. That is what we plan to do and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will come to the Government early in the new year with proposals to increase those housing targets.

Deputy Paul Murphy asked a question about long Covid and the occupational scheme. I will have to check with the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, about that. I do not know the exact answer but I will come back to the Deputy within the next few days. When it comes to Covid-19, our general approach has been to remove the exceptional status that was afforded to it in the past. It is now endemic. It is part of the many viruses any of us can get at any given time. It makes more sense to treat Covid as we would any respiratory virus, such as influenza, and to treat long Covid in the same way we would treat any other chronic disease. Rather than having a specific scheme for a specific disease, we should apply the same approach we apply to others.

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