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

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for the opportunity to speak about Covid-19 and the recently-announced new restrictions. This is only my second time to address the Twenty-sixth Seanad. I am pleased to do so, and look forward to doing so again soon.

When I spoke here last, in April, we were reopening the economy after a very difficult start to the year following the very severe Alpha wave. I said at the time that we wanted to avoid a fourth wave later in 2021 and that, this time, we wanted construction, retail, hospitality and tourism to reopen and stay open. Eight months on, the picture of progress is quite mixed. Despite the successful vaccination programme and what seemed like a gradual normalisation of society, the virus is still very much with us and we are now experiencing a serious fourth wave.

The new restrictions announced on Friday, which apply today, were a bitter pill and a bitter disappointment to all of us. They were a body blow in particular for sectors like hospitality, the arts, events entertainment and leisure. For the first time in the pandemic, we are tightening restrictions when the epidemiological situation appears to be improving, when numbers in hospital and ICU have peaked and are falling - or at least it appears that way - and deaths are at a relatively low level, thankfully.We are now outperforming even the most optimistic models presented to us only a few weeks ago. This is due to the success of the third dose vaccine programme. We expect that 1 million people will have received their third dose by the end of this week. We have a robust test and isolate programme. More tests are being carried out every day than at any time since the pandemic began. We also have effective non-pharmaceutical interventions, NPIs, such as the wearing of masks.

When making decisions we did so based on strong public health advice and three concerns in particular: first, the certainty of increased social mixing as we approach Christmas and the impact that might have; a flu season that we did not experience last year but expect to experience this year and, of course, our immunity to the flu has waned as a consequence of social distancing; and, particularly, uncertainty about the Omicron variant. The public continues to play a really positive role in the fight against Covid-19 by embracing the vaccination programme and responding to public health advice. That resolve will be crucial in getting through the winter ahead.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 here in March 2020, the Government has sought to save as many lives and as many livelihoods as possible. The evidence indicates that we are doing well on both counts. Our number of deaths per million is among the lowest in the EU while our vaccination rate is among the highest. That is not a coincidence.

We have sought to keep workers connected to their employers and on the payroll. We have sought to help businesses survive through a robust and sustained programme of financial support from the Government. The Department of Finance estimates that we will have spent €48 billion to support businesses and workers by the end of 2022. This is the largest intervention by the State in the economy since the bank guarantee but it is a much better one.

The main schemes such as the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, and the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, compare very well internationally. We have extended these schemes well beyond their original end dates. We will continue to provide assistance where and when it is needed. This was evident on Friday when we announced a package of financial interventions for the hospitality, events and entertainment sectors. The package includes three options: an enhanced CRSS scheme for the affected sectors to supplement existing EWSS payments - and I anticipate that the Minister for Finance will be able to announced the details tomorrow; an extension of the targeted commercial rates waiver at least until the end of March next year; and an extra €25 million from the Covid contingency fund applied to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, in particular to assist the live entertainment, arts and performance sectors. As Senators will be aware, the PUP has also been reopened for workers who lose their jobs or have lost their jobs as a result of the newly announced restrictions.

As I said, the Government will step in to assist when and where it is necessary but we must do so in a targeted way. Some parts of the economy and, indeed, the economy in the round are performing extremely well. It is our responsibility to help those sectors that are not. Thankfully, we can afford to do so and I would argue that we cannot afford not to.

From the point of view of my Department, more than 100,000 restart grants have been paid out to businesses during the course of 2021. Where existing schemes did not reach certain businesses, we designed new ones to fill the gaps with ad hocprogrammes such as the small business assistance scheme for Covid, SBASC, and the events sector Covid support scheme. There will need to be another round of the latter scheme given the most recent announcement and the impact that will have on the events sector. Other Departments acted similarly with special schemes for transport, aviation, the arts and sports among others.

Although they are not as well known and are not talked about much, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, InterTradeIreland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and local enterprise offices, LEOs, have all provided funding to businesses since March 2020. For example, the not so well known sustaining enterprise fund has approved €206 million in non-repayable grants and loans thus helping to sustain approximately 30,000 jobs in businesses ranging from engineering to construction, to food and to consumer retail. We also introduced a range of new loans to help businesses respond to Covid-19 and Brexit. For example, 7,700 loans have been drawn down under the State's largest ever loan facility, the Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme, totalling more than €500 million.We are extending the scheme for at least another six months by way of an amendment to the Social Welfare Bill due to be enacted this month. I am sure the Seanad will be happy to support this. The Department is also carrying out a review of our most popular and oversubscribed loan scheme, that is, the future growth loan scheme, with a view to a new loan product to replace it in 2022. It is a little-known fact that almost one third of all lending to business is now Government-backed in some way.

Many people predicted a tsunami of business closures when the pandemic first hit in early 2020. Thankfully, that has not transpired, at least not yet. In the meantime, we have reformed the law in this area to help as many businesses as possible to survive. Earlier today, I signed an order commencing the new small companies administrative rescue process, SCARP, legislation. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, for spearheading this initiative and the Senators present for their speedy consideration of the Bill earlier in the year. From today, small and micro companies have access to a new restructuring and rescue process mirroring examinership but in an administrative form. It is designed to be cheaper and faster than the court-sponsored examinership system and, taken together with the range of grants and loans available, should save viable businesses and jobs that would otherwise have been lost.

When the Government published the economic recovery plan in June, I stated that we were going to go for broke by backing business to ensure our economy could recover lost ground quickly and exceed pre-crisis employment levels by 2024. Five months on, the strategy is working. The economy is rebounding strongly. Employment figures released last week show that more than 110,000 people returned to work in the third quarter of the year. Encouragingly, employment is up in every region and every sector. A smooth recovery, however, is certainly not guaranteed, and the announcement last Friday of the reimposition of some restrictions is a reminder to us all in that regard. It is a setback and we need to acknowledge that, but the economic recovery plan is not just about recovery. It is also about the future, enabling workers and businesses to make the green and digital transition.

Later this week, I will launch the climate toolkit for business with my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. It will provide businesses with a tailored assessment of their carbon footprint. This complements initiatives such as the new green for micro scheme and the lean for micro scheme which benefit businesses through cost savings, improving resource efficiency, reducing environmental impacts and enhancing competitiveness and productivity.

We will be doing our best to help businesses to adapt and plan for the next decade, especially the digital transition. This will include a new €10 million digital transition fund to increase digitalisation of all businesses across products, processes, supply chains and business models and initiatives to help to upskill workers.

The economic recovery plan is also about building a more inclusive economy, with fewer barriers to employment and better conditions for employees. We have already seen the benefits of remote and flexible working. It opens up a range of possibilities for rural Ireland, with less commuting and fewer barriers to employment, particularly for people with caring responsibilities - including, but not exclusively, many women - and those with disabilities.

In the near future, I will be publishing draft legislation on the right to request remote work. This complements the work already done under the national remote work strategy, such as the introduction of the new code of practice on the right to disconnect. The legislation on the right to request remote work has taken longer than I anticipated, but there is good reason for this. New rights are being created for the first time in Ireland and our extensive stakeholder consultation has illustrated the breadth of issues on which we must strike a delicate balance.

The House is aware of the actions I am taking to improve workers’ terms and conditions, including a further increase in the minimum wage, due in January; the introduction of statutory sick pay, which is currently under consideration by the committee; the move to a living wage; the protection of tips; and a review of collective bargaining and the industrial relations landscape in Ireland.

At the moment, we are finalising legislation giving effect to Ireland’s first statutory sick pay scheme. The Oireachtas committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny report is awaited and we will progress the Bill as soon as the report is received.

Earlier this year, I asked the Low Pay Commission to examine how Ireland could move towards a living wage and to make recommendations on the best and most suitable approach in an Irish context. I am awaiting that report and hope to bring proposals to the Cabinet in the new year.

In October, I received Government approval for draft legislation to protect employees’ tips and give customers transparency in respect of how tips are distributed and what happens to the service charge they pay.We should be able to enact that legislation in the first half of next year. I aim to do so before the summer recess. I do not have time to mention all the reforms we are pursuing in the Department and across government but I am confident they will lead to a substantial improvement in the terms and conditions of workers, without damaging business or the wider competitiveness of society.

I am conscious that many businesses are really struggling and that some will be struggling for some time to come. Therefore, we will sequence these reforms appropriately over the next few years. The most important workers' right is the right to work, and I do not want to do anything that might cause businesses to fail or workers to have their hours reduced or to lose their jobs. I look forward to hearing Senators' contributions and to responding to their questions later.