Vouchers for restaurants will not be included in July stimulus package – Varadkar

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has ruled out the introduction of vouchers for use in restaurants and hotels to assist the hospitality sector.

He said “stimulating demand is no good to a pub or a night club that’s closed or a wedding venue that can’t hold weddings of more than 50 people”.

Mr Varadkar who is Minister for Enterprise signalled instead that the July economic stimulus package will include an extension of the temporary wage subsidy scheme beyond October to help businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the Government would also consider including seasonal workers – who were not excluded when the scheme was established – in the wage subsidy scheme.

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They are also looking at continuing the waiver on commercial rates and enhancing the business restart grants.

Sinn Féin had called for every adult in the State to be given a €200 voucher and every child a €100 one.

The party's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said their proposal would cost €860 million.

He cited Italy and Vienna, Austria as example of such initiatives and said “in the United States billions of dollars are being distributed in stimulus cheques directly to people”.

The Donegal TD said it could save thousands of jobs that would otherwise be lost and cost the State more in the long term.

Tourism accounts for about 270,000 jobs and 68 per cent of them are outside of Dublin “and in many parts of the country it is the principal source of economic activity”.

He said there were 10 million international tourists who visit Ireland annually who will not be here this year and may not be here next year, and a voucher scheme would help the sector.

Shopping list

The Tánaiste said the industry is very dependent on travel, both international and domestic, and acknowledged that it was the sector “hit first, hardest and will probably be affected the longest as a result of this pandemic.”

He said there is a “strong case for putting in place actions that would help to stimulate demand but we need to be honest with people too.

“Stimulating demand is going to be no good to a pub that’s closed or a night club that is closed or a wedding venue that can’t hold weddings of more than 50 people. So it has benefits but it also has limitations.”

Sinn Féin had proposals to launch for the July stimulus package and Mr Varadkar said it would be a “very long shopping list” but he warned there was a limit to what could be included in any such package.

The State would borrow more €30 billion this year.

He said they would have income of €50 billion but outgoings of €80 billion and the €30 billion deficit would likely be the biggest the State had ever had.

Borrowing is the right thing to do, he told Mr Doherty, but it was wrong to believe they could “do everything on your list”.

The measures for inclusion in the July stimulus would not be decided until Monday and measures under consideration include: the wage subsidy and extending it to seasonal workers; a continued waiver on rates; improvements to the Restart Grant to include more businesses; and introducing more generous rates. He acknowledged that higher grants were paid in Northern Ireland.