John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the acute need for further Government stimulus for the retail and hospitality sectors.The way to introduce such a stimulus is through a gift card scheme in budget 2021. I ask that the Minister attend the House to discuss this suggestion.

Covid-19 has impacted on the way businesses work. We have 292,000 people employed in the hospitality sector and 250,000 are involved in the retail sector. Further stimulus measures are crucial if we are to help these vulnerable businesses to get through what is becoming the second wave of Covid and into the new year.

The Central Bank has estimated that €120 billion was sitting unspent in Irish bank accounts in July. By introducing a gift card system like this one, we would encourage people to go out and spend. It has worked well in Malta, where the Maltese Government introduced five gift card schemes - one for retail and four for hospitality. Although each voucher was worth €20, the average spend was €36.40, representing an 82% increase on the voucher's value. It proves that, when people use gift cards, they actually spend more money in shops. The evidence in Ireland is similarly strong. Of Irish consumers, 83% spend above the value of their gift cards.

In the current context, the crucial advantage of introducing this type of scheme in budget 2021 would be to encourage people to spend in shops in our local economies and communities, thereby helping SMEs to survive and get going. If the Government introduced this meaningful scheme, it would give our retail and hospitality sectors the extra level of confidence and spending they need in their hour of need as Covid restrictions increase.