Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
77. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which the commitment to gender and equality proofing will be reflected in the July stimulus package; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18272/20]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, while gender and equality are important to the work of all Departments, my colleague, Minister Roderic O’Gorman T.D., will have responsibility for policy in this area going forward following the transfer of functions from the Department of Justice and Equality to the new Department of Children, Disability, Equality and Integration.
However, I can inform the Deputy that the Programme for Government acknowledges that some of the biggest challenges we are facing include achieving social solidarity and equality of opportunity, reaching ecological harmony and economic equity and embracing our cultural diversity. Over the course of the next five years, this Government will take steps to develop the strategies and the policies required to achieve this. At the heart of all of this will, of course, be creating new jobs, preparing for the jobs of the future, driving our economic recovery, and improving the quality of life for all our people.
Significant Exchequer support, through wage subsidies, the PUP, grants for businesses, low cost loans and commercial rates waivers. The July Stimulus is the next step in our recovery. We have listened to businesses and responded with a package of scale and speed to meet their most immediate needs. The July Stimulus is designed to stimulate a jobs-led recovery and build economic confidence while continuing to manage the impact of Covid-19. It backs businesses and workers so that together we can return to prosperity and growth.
The full list of actions within the July Stimulus and how to avail of them can be found at www.gov.ie/jobsstimulus .
Government analysis, that is available online, showed that the most-heavily impacted sectors are accommodation and food, construction, administrative and support services, wholesale and retail trade, and other personal services. Evidence for this includes the numbers of employees in these sectors availing of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and Pandemic Unemployment Payment. A number of these sectors have pay levels below average and employ a high share of women and young people.
Moreover, Ireland is not alone in this. Recent international research from Eurofound, the OECD and the IMF have come to similar conclusions highlighting that women have been more adversely affected than man by the crisis and that the risk of young workers (up to age 35) being the victim of new economic fallout is very high.
I expect the measures in the July Stimulus package will particularly help these sectors thus offsetting the impacts on inequality resulting from the crisis.
The July Stimulus will be followed in October by the National Economic Plan, our longer-term economic roadmap, to be published alongside the next Budget.
Careful consideration will need to be given to gender and equality during the recovery as I know different people have been impacted in different ways by the crisis. This will require a whole-of-Government effort.
