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

I thank Senators for their contributions. Storm Barra was mentioned at the outset and the Government has been informed that a number of businesses incurred water and wind damage as a consequence of the storm. Most companies will be covered by their insurance but where companies were not able to get insurance, they will be eligible for financial aid from my Department. We have restructured that scheme, which was previously run through the Red Cross and the Department of Defence; it has been transferred to my Department and it will be run by local enterprise offices in each county. It will funded through my Department. We will open that scheme in the coming days and certainly no later than Tuesday next week if it is required.

I have heard the comments of Senators today on the EWSS and also from the hospitality and entertainment sectors, where there is a strong preference that we restore the scheme to the rate paid in November. There is a difficulty in this. More than half the businesses and jobs supported by the EWSS are not in the hospitality, arts or events sectors but sectors that have not been affected by the reimposition of restrictions. These include construction, retail, administration and education. Ideally, we would like to make the EWSS sector-specific but the Minister for Finance and the Revenue Commissioners have told me that cannot be done. I told them to double-check that and come back to me as I do not want to find it can be done all of a sudden. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and the Revenue Commissioners are still working on that possibility as it stands. The current advice is it cannot be done on a sectoral basis. We do not want to give most of the money to companies that do not really need it or companies that need to have that financial support wound down over the next few months.

There is a bigger picture here that people should acknowledge. The performance of the Irish economy varies from sector to sector but in the round it has been extraordinary. The budget deficit this year will be a fraction of what we thought it would be. There are 2.4 million people at work in Ireland now, almost as many as before the pandemic. We are facing labour shortages across the economy and more business people are telling me they cannot get staff than the opposite. My Department is facing a major backlog of work permit applications because we have seen a surge in applications for work permits; not only can employers not find staff here, but they cannot even find them in Europe. They now have to go beyond the European Union and the European Economic Area to find staff. That is the broader context in which we operate. We must ensure that if we are to give wage supports to any companies, they go to the companies that need it and not just across the board. That would not make sense for reasons Senators will understand.

If we cannot use the EWSS on a sectoral basis, we will use the CRSS on a sectoral basis to target those companies, businesses and workers that are now adversely affected by these restrictions. We are examining the €5,000 cap, which is far too low for medium to large companies. We get that and we know the EWSS does not have a cap. The 50% turnover rule is not going to work, particularly because of the distorting effect of December. We are aware the figure of 30% was used for the EWSS. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is examining all this now and I hope he will be in a position to make an announcement tomorrow. It may require primary legislation but I am thankful the Finance Bill is currently before the Seanad, where it can be amended to provide for such a provision. It may well be that we need to use the Seanad to do this in the next couple of days. If not, we may be able to do it in the new year.

Even beyond that we will need some sectoral schemes. The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and I are working together on a few possibilities, including reopening the live performance support scheme and the events sector scheme, as well as some bespoke tourism schemes. We are making some good progress on that.

I took note of Senator Keogan's remarks on Covid-19 and I hear what she is saying. I welcome a debate on these matters and I do not like to see people browbeaten in any sort of debate on these matters. We have had to change our mind and strategy with Covid-19 so many times that we should never discount the possibility we might need to do so again. We are all still learning around the world about the right approach to Covid-19. Any country that appears to be doing the best in the world will find that within six weeks it will not be. This tells us we still do not know the right approach to dealing with Covid-19. It is only when the pandemic is over and we can look back at what worked and what did not that we will really know for sure. We are just trying to make the best decisions with the best advice and information available.

The science on this is changing and I try to keep an open mind on such things, facilitating critical thinking on Covid-19 strategies. People may come to me saying they want to impose new restrictions and these may cause a business to close, people to lose their jobs or individuals or families to have their freedom reduced.I will always ask questions. I will always ask for evidence. I will always ask whether there are alternatives. While some people may be critical of me for doing so it is a good thing that we have people in government, and it certainly is not just me, who will ask the questions, look for evidence, ask for alternatives and will need to be convinced of the facts before we agree to imposing restrictions that affect people's lives, businesses, jobs and freedoms.

With regard to the Covid pass and vaccine passes, there is good evidence that they have worked. At the very least they have encouraged more and more people to get vaccinated. I am not sure we would have reached so high a level of vaccination as 93% or 94% were it not for the Covid pass system. There is good evidence that countries that have it have higher levels of vaccination. At the very least, it has worked on this level if it has not, perhaps, been as effective as we hoped in terms of transmission. It has certainly been effective in encouraging people to get vaccinated. We see people who are not yet vaccinated still coming to get vaccinated for the first time and this is encouraging.

With regard to the pandemic unemployment payment, at its peak 650,000 people were in receipt of the payment. This has reduced to approximately 60,000 or 65,000. Nine out of ten people who needed the payment are back at work and it is important that we acknowledge that fact. When it comes to the 60,000 or 65,000 still on the pandemic unemployment payment, most of them for more than a year and in some cases almost two years, we are engaging with them individually to help them with job searches and to offer educational and training opportunities. The Department of Social Protection is doing its job making sure these people are still resident in the country because not all are and making sure people are not working and claiming at the same time. We all know there is a degree of this. Even if it is not a large number it is a number nonetheless. This group is different to those being laid off all of a sudden for the second or third time. This is why a different treatment is being applied.

With regard to 9 January, some Senators expressed the hope that restrictions could be lifted before then. I hope so too but I do not anticipate it being the case. Certainly my message to the industries I met yesterday was not to operate on the basis that restrictions would be eased before 9 January. We probably should not raise expectations in this regard. There are three reasons we have reimposed these restrictions. The first is increased social mixing in the run-up to Christmas, which may increase the caseload. This almost certainly will happen. The flu season is almost certainly going to happen. I hope it will not be a bad one but it will probably happen. There is also uncertainty about Omicron. I am not sure we will be certain about Omicron as soon as 9 January. We need to operate on the basis these restrictions will be in place at least until 9 January. Generally in our experience with the pandemic when restrictions are imposed they tend to be extended and not reversed sooner than the date designated. This is why we need to bear this in mind. Any time I hear anyone say "it is just for a few weeks" in this pandemic I always ask them how many times they have said that and it has then turned out to be for a few months. This is why we should always make decisions mindful of the fact that what might appear to be a temporary measure can be one that lasts for months and even years. We must always bear this in mind.

Senator Crowe mentioned the idea of a task force on the long-term future of the hospitality sector. This is a good idea. Perhaps we should try to get a clearer picture of where we are going with the pandemic before we do so. It is something we should do in 2022. I hope that 2022 will be the year we move away from restrictions on business and personal freedoms and social life to what is called a vaccine plus strategy. This will use vaccines, the new treatments that will be available, isolating people who are sick, much more testing and we are doing this, more hospital bed capacity and more ICU capacity and we are doing these things, and things such as masks and ventilation. It will be about trying to use all of these together as enough to keep the virus and pandemic under control and, therefore, not having to use restrictions on business or people's freedoms. I hope we get to this point in 2022.

I want to say there are no plans to close schools early. The plan is to open schools as normal in January. There is an active debate about the mid-term break in October. It seems the mid-term break in October for schools and colleges might have led to an increase in cases. The truth is that when children are in school they tend to only mix with the children in their class, their parents at home and their nuclear family. When schools are out there is an argument that people start mixing, travelling and encountering groups they would not otherwise mix with. It might be better to keep the schools operating until they are supposed to and not bring forward the break for this reason. Obviously there are arguments both ways on this.

On the issue of statutory sick pay, this is a personal priority of mine. One of the things I had the privilege to do as Minister with responsibility for social protection was to introduce paternity benefit and paternity leave. As health Minister I had the privilege of working with Kathleen Lynch to introduce free GP care for children aged under six. I hope in my time in office as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I will have the privilege to introduce the first statutory sick pay scheme in Ireland. It was delayed. It is not with us now but with the committee. As soon as the committee gets back to us we will get it to the House. I hope it will be enacted by the Dáil and Seanad without delay. I want to phase it in. We need to bear in mind that for many employers, particularly small employers, this will be an added cost. People running barbershops or small shops in rural, urban or suburban Ireland who have a member of staff out sick will have to pay them and their replacement. It does all add up and I want to be sensitive to this and understand this explanation from business. This is why I want to phase it in over time and the intention is to do so. I also need to bear in mind in particular businesses along the Border. We will introduce a sick pay scheme that will pay up to €110 a day. In the Six Counties of Northern Ireland it is £90 a week. South of the Border people will receive more in sick pay in one day than they would get in an entire week north of the Border. This is a risk for businesses along the Border in particular. I appeal to Sinn Féin in particular as it co-chairs the Government in Northern Ireland-----