Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for coming before the Seanad to take these statements. I share the concerns of others about the impact of the new measures on the tourism and hospitality sector. In Wexford an estimated 9,700 people are directly employed by the sector. Those who run businesses have made it very clear that they are very appreciative of the supports the Government has put in place to ensure that businesses are kept afloat and that people continue to be employed. However, I have been talking to owners and managers of hotels and bars, as have my colleagues here, and they tell me that restaurant bookings, particularly group bookings, are being cancelled, that all Christmas parties and other such occasions have been cancelled and that hotel occupancy is down, partially because there is a fear on the part of consumers of travelling and attending such events. People are rightly being cautious, but that has serious implications for those businesses. Everyone has spoken about how they have played their part. I encourage the Tánaiste to ensure that the EWSS is restored in order to allow those businesses to survive over December, January and February. I hope that we will start to see in the spring a recovery and that the Omicron variant will not be as serious as had been feared.

I strongly endorse Senator Black's comments. There has been enormous sacrifice on the part of those who are involved in the arts and entertainment sector. I will add to her comments by referring to the impact on theatres, specifically amateur and community theatres, and the announcements that were made last Friday. Senator Cummins and I raised this as a Commencement matter this morning. I know that Senator Carrigy and other colleagues have also raised it. I refer to the decision on Friday to reduce capacity to 50% in theatres. People were given literally a couple of days' notice to plan for this change. How can you suddenly decide, for pre-sold shows over the coming months, which 50% will get to attend the show and which 50% will not? Theatres are faced with the financial challenge of either determining that the show will go ahead, thereby losing all the money that has to be refunded to people, or deciding to cancel the show and losing probably an even greater sum. Theatres and venues, for the most part, and pantos and other productions cannot operate at less than 70% to 80% capacity. Anyone here who has been to a theatre recently will know they are among the safest venues you can go to. Your Covid certificate and ID are checked and there is sanitation everywhere. I have had my temperature checked on occasion going into them. It is just completely unfair. It shows a lack of understanding on the part of the Cabinet to simply announce that on Tuesday those decisions have to be made.

I wish to talk about the amateur and community sector. There are also people employed there. We are talking about professional choreographers, directors, set designers and musicians who are employed for all these productions. There are the pre-Christmas productions, which are now in chaos and are trying to do what they can. Equally, as we all know, particularly for panto season, people are looking into January. People are now making financial commitments and they do not know what the situation will be. Certainty has to be provided. In addition, we must have support for those community organisations and sole traders working in our communities. A lot of those community organisations will die if the current regime continues without the necessary financial supports put in place.

Finally, during this period we have seen a technological revolution. There has been a lot more use of digital. It is important we learn from that and the impact it has had on business and trading. I will make two points in that regard. Bank of Ireland published a very interesting survey two weeks ago. It pointed out that, year on year, the increase in online expenditure by teenagers was 184% and by those aged 18 to 25 years of age was 40%. We know there is a lot more use of cards and so on, but there has been a dramatic shift to online expenditure. We have to ensure that our businesses are equipped to be able to avail of that business.The other big concern I have, and I am not convinced the Government is facing up to it sufficiently, is the area of cybercrime. Last month, Grant Thornton estimated the economic cost of cybercrime last year was €9.6 billion. I know there is a commitment in the national development plan to increase staff in the National Cyber Security Centre from 25 to 70. We know cybercrime is on the rise. Coming out of the pandemic it is essential that we have a national targeted strategy to address it.