The truth is that not every business was viable before the pandemic. There were those who hoped they would become viable as the economy continued to grow. That has not happened. We had a pandemic instead and now the economy has shrunk so, for some businesses that hoped to become viable, that hope is now lost. We will see businesses close in all sectors, unfortunately. That is just the truth of it but we want to minimise the number of businesses that fail and for sectors who were hit hard, hit first and hit worst, s…

I met representatives of ISME last week. We are paying attention to what other countries do and every country's package is different. We compare favourably when it comes to the pandemic unemployment payment. Not many countries are providing €350 per week to workers. That is triple what it is in Northern Ireland or Britain. We compare quite well when it comes to the wage subsidy scheme, which will end in the UK, for example, in October. We have not yet set a date for ours. We probably need to do more with direct gra…

I do not have jewels or a revolver. I am a simple man.

I thank the Deputy for his question and for his interest in advocating on behalf of small business in his constituency and elsewhere. To assist businesses to overcome the unique and unprecedented challenges posed by Covid-19, the Government has put in place a package for firms that includes the wage subsidy scheme, direct grants, low-cost loans, the write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities. These measures are designed to restore confidence and further assist businesses in terms of their management…

I very much agree with the Deputy about the importance of the SME sector. In all parts of Ireland, large numbers of people are employed in small firms. When we talk about SMEs, people might not appreciate that we are talking about firms with up to 500 employees. A company with that number of employees is quite a large firm but it is technically an SME. We know that the public sector has been largely protected through the pandemic. Very few people in the public service have lost their job, which is a good thing. Emp…

As I said, the July stimulus will be a package of scale. I expect it to include actions we can implement within weeks or months, not actions that cannot be done until next year or the year after, and to amount to several billions of euro in funding. It is important to say, however, that we are not going to fire all our bullets next week. We will do more in October as part of the budget and as part of the national economic plan. The proposals we publish next week will provide a multibillion euro package of measures …

I thank the Deputy for his question and for his ongoing interest in Brexit and how it will impact on this State. Whatever shape it finally takes, Brexit will have a significant impact on the economy. It will fundamentally change the trading environment for businesses currently trading with the UK. In 2018, my Department published a report, entitled Strategic Implications for Ireland Arising from Changing EU-UK Trading Relations, which examined the implications of Brexit for the economy and trade. While tariffs ofte…

Diversifying our economy in order that over time, it becomes less and less dependent on trade with Britain is an enormous part of our work, not just in the Department and the Government as a whole but also for the trade section of my Department, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. If one looks back far enough, Britain was once our only significant trading partner and it now makes up about 17% or 18% of our trade, though that is a misleading figure because it is so important for certain sectors such as the food and …

I do not know. I have not had the chance to speak to my new counterpart, Alok Sharma, yet but I intend to do so in the next week or two. Based on the experience I have had with Brexit negotiations up until now, I think there will be a deal but that it will come late in the day, maybe as late as October, November or December. That is why we once again have to prepare for the risk of a Brexit with no trade agreement. We unfortunately have had to march businesses up that hill a few times already but we need to be prep…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter and his ongoing interest and work on behalf of consumers and bank customers. As the Deputy and the rest of the House are aware, banks are offering mortgage holders and businesses loan breaks of between three and six months. This is very welcome as it gives people breathing space if they are struggling to pay their mortgage or business loan as a consequence of the pandemic. So far, 140,000 customers have availed of the payment break. Crucially, the loan is not rec…

I thank the Deputy. We have had a look at what has been done in other countries around Europe and the way the Deputy has presented it in interviews and so on does not tell the full story. Different countries are doing different things but those are broadly in line with what is happening in Ireland. There are some hardship cases, for example, in Belgium which is treating it differently but it is not as the Deputy has presented it in the media. He has been quite misleading in his comments in that regard.

The fundamental point for me, and for customers and people who have availed of a payment break, is whether the banks will make any extra money out of this. If somehow they make extra money out of it by making some sort of Covid premium or Covid bonus for the banks, that is not acceptable and we will deal with that but that is what has to be worked out because that is what matters. It appears to me, and this is what was explained in the meeting, is that if a loan is issued for ten years and it is extended to ten and…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. All of us in this House will have had many similar stories related to us by our constituents and many queries coming through our constituency offices which are very similar. As I believe everyone in the House will appreciate, many normal health, education and disability services had to be suspended, discontinued or curtailed during the pandemic period. The Government is working very hard to restore those service to what they should be and what they used to be, al…

I am reluctant to give the Deputy a date because if I give him one it is a date I want to stand over. The worst thing one can do in a circumstance like this, other than failing to provide the service, is to give a date that one cannot then deliver. That would raise people's hopes and they would be let down even more and I do not want to do that today. I can assure the House that this is a priority for the new Ministers involved in education, health and disability. Works will have to be carried out to some buildings…

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. She does so at a good time because this is going to be really important as we head into the winter. We are very closely watching what is happening in the southern hemisphere, where countries are now entering the winter flu season. We need to watch what happens there in order to inform what we do here. Everyone knows that the flu comes every winter. What many people probably do not know is that every year somewhere between 500 and 1,500 lives are lost or sh…

I thank the Deputy. The figures I have been given refer to 1.35 million doses of the quadrivalent vaccine. That will be sufficient for a 90% uptake among at-risk groups, including healthcare workers. There are 600,000 doses for children between two and 12 years of age, which equates to a rate of 75%. I will double-check those figures.

I do not know if there is an estimate for demand, but there is enough to provide for a 90% uptake.

No.

As the Deputy will know, the flu vaccine for the northern hemisphere is formulated based on what the flu looks like in the southern hemisphere, because it starts there and spreads to the northern hemisphere. It may be the case - I might be wrong - but I suspect that the vaccine has not yet been formulated, let alone produced. It would not, therefore, be possible for us to have secured a vaccine that has not yet been produced. However, we are aware that there will be increased demand this year and that other countri…

In regard to the Deputy's earlier remarks, we all need to be very careful and responsible in how we use international comparative data relating to Covid. We all need to take the information we see on websites like Worldometer for what it is, which is not a like-for-like comparison between countries. Every country is at a different stage in this pandemic. Things look very different in Israel and Portugal today from how they looked a few months ago, and the same applies in other parts of the world. Countries that tho…