The new Government has been told by the OECD not to overly worry about the build-up in Ireland’s sovereign debt during the Covid-19 crisis and instead focus on preventing a return of the scourge of long-term unemployment. Under any second Covid-19 wave, the new Government "should not be concerned about the deficit that may be run up”, he said. “We all understand what happened to Ireland last time with the last financial crisis but we would advise that all governments should not be too rushed to return to consolidation and during this life support stage,” he said. New figures showed there were almost 27,000 fewer people availing of the pandemic unemployment payment in the past week. However, there are still over one million people - equivalent to over half of all private-sector workers - who need some sort of Government welfare payment to make ends meet.

Source: Irish Examiner June 29, 2020 20:21 UTC