October’s Budget will need to provide extra supports to sectors forced to remain closed for public health reasons so that they can survive and reopen later, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said. He cited the live music industry, the events sector, travel and aviation as well as the pub trade as needing supports beyond the general stimulus being provided by Government. Measures will be needed to retain skills in those areas as well as to keep businesses operating so that they can eventually reopen, he said. “We don’t want DJs to retrain as lawyers or riggers to become healthcare workers, we don’t want people to move out of these sectors,” he said. Minister Varadkar said he expects the progress of Covid 19 to be “more akin a war or invasion” than an economic crash – with parts of the country potentially occupied, liberated and re-occupied in different waves of infection.

Source: Irish Independent September 11, 2020 15:22 UTC