Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentations. I will focus on solutions and issues we need to consider now, following the Government set of decisions that have been published. Many people would like to see big changes, but the Government has been supporting the economy at a cost of €2 billion per month and there is a need to draw back from that. Very large suggestions, of either new tax cuts or new spending programmes, will be challenging in that atmosphere.

What changes in viability supports are needed? What changes are needed in regard to transition measures for people who have been impacted or who are going to find it a difficult number of months? Finally, what are our guests' views on the longer-term structural issues?

As for the transition, will our guests from ICTU give an idea of how the short-time work scheme might work? Could it be piloted in a sector that has particular difficulties with a start date and an end date in order that there could be a cost-benefit analysis to see how far it might get us? I would be interested to hear ICTU's reaction to various active labour market measures, as they used to be called; I think they have a new name. I refer to measures such as work experience, the new training programmes and the evolving apprenticeship programme.

I would be specifically interested in the comment on childcare or the transition changes in childcare that we need to be thinking about.

I would like to congratulate ISME for having pioneered the examinership-lite that is now hitting the Statute Book and is a very important measure. We now have rates relief, extended EWSS, SCARP, a number of business supports, online supports, access to credit and so on. Where is the shoe pinching in terms of that array of measures? Where are the gaps that the Government could start to look at in a targeted way?

Mr. McDonnell threw out the issue that the vaccination status of co-workers could be exploited by lawyers. Perhaps he would elaborate on that.

Clearly, we have long-term structural changes. Some of those relate to sick pay, the living wage and so on, and some are more around big things like how we adapt to a circular economy and the climate challenges. In terms of direction as we exit to build back better, as they say, do the witnesses have advice on how we build back better?