As I said yesterday, I welcome the fact that the acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ronan Glynn, has given clarity that Covid is going to be with us at least for the next six to nine months and we need to plan for it. The economic forecast yesterday presented a very bleak picture as regards unemployment for the next 12 months, particularly in regard to unemployment in the domestic economy and for young people. It is very worrying. The unemployment rate for the year is expected to be approximately 16%, which is worse than during the financial crisis a decade ago, falling to 10.7% in 2021. It is going to hit local economies especially hard because they are depending on the domestic economy, whereas the multinationals are not particularly dependent on it and they are the ones that have kept the country going to some extent as regards unemployment.

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the hospitality, tourism, entertainment and food industries. I want to know specifically what the Government is going to do for the people working in those industries because they are bearing the brunt of the crisis more than anyone else. I say this with some knowledge as I used to work in Fáilte Ireland, which I have referenced a number of times before. The issue for me is that it looks like we are going to have continual local lockdowns of counties depending on the way things develop. That is something we can assume will happen. It will have a huge impact on these sectors because from day to day, week to week and month to month, people working in hospitality, including in pubs and restaurants, people driving tour buses, accommodation providers and those working all across the tourism sector, will not know if they are going to have an income. They will not know what their income is going to be and they will have very little notice of any lockdowns. By the way, that is not necessarily anybody's fault. I am saying this to be constructive and not to make a political point. It is not necessarily anybody's fault. We see that there are 100,000 people claiming the PUP in Dublin, which is an increase in the numbers, and most of them are in the hospitality, tourism, accommodation and food sectors.

I want to know what is going to be done for those people. We cannot continue to have a situation where they are put into lockdowns and are unable to provide a service. They do not know if their county or area will be next and they do not have a stable income. Will the Taoiseach consider a full restoration of the pandemic unemployment payment on a sectoral basis for these sectors and industries, namely, hospitality, tourism, accommodation, food and drink? We need to plan for something like that. For more than a year, the Labour Party has called for an Irish Kurzarbeit modelled on Germany's short-term work scheme for these sectors so that there can at least be retraining going on while there is a PUP-type payment. Will the Taoiseach consider a sectoral payment for all of these areas over the next six months? If all of these people are worried about their county going into lockdown, we must have a mechanism to keep them going, keep income coming in and ensure there is continuity in regard to employment in the sector.

I thank Deputy Kelly for his question and the issues he has raised. There is no doubt that the impact of Covid-19 on the economy has been very severe in 2020, and especially on the domestic side of the economy. Regarding the multinational sector, it is worth saying this, and the Deputy will acknowledge it and get it, but a lot of people in the House do not get it, that Sinn Féin and the far left have never acknowledged or accepted the extraordinary impact the multinational sector has had on our economy. It is 250,000 direct jobs and 450,000 jobs dependent on that sector. It has been significant in enabling the country to try to get through this unprecedented global pandemic and its impact.

Deputy Kelly is correct in identifying the hospitality, food and accommodation sectors as those that have been particularly impacted by Covid-19. It is no-one's fault other than Covid-19 because the virus thrives in congregated settings. The virus also affects the other related sectors of music and entertainment, or wherever people gather and audiences are required, because the virus thrives there.

The Deputy will be aware of the whole variety of supports offered already, from restart grants to microenterprise loans and so on. Many businesses, however, do not want to take on any more debt. We get that. Hence the various general VAT reductions. We will have to look again at more sector-specific approaches or look at how we can keep as many businesses and enterprises in the tourism sector viable and intact over the medium term. That is the challenge and we are working on that. We are reflecting on how best to do that across the board to see what is the most effective way of retaining viability so that when Covid is over, businesses can re-emerge and get going again in creating employment in the tourism and hospitality sector.

On the food and beverage industry, if we go into a level three lockdown in other counties, they cannot exactly serve food and drink outside between October and February. We need a plan here for when accommodation providers and tour operators lose their bookings, and we know all about the events sector too. I ask the Taoiseach to put sectoral changes into the budget for these specific industries. I also ask the Taoiseach to consider what extra can be done when lockdowns are put in place. It is obvious now that we will have to consider more localised lockdowns rather than county-specific lockdowns, something we would support. I agree that we cannot add on debt, but we need to look at a scheme such as the Kurzarbeit scheme in Germany, which is very successful. I ask the Taoiseach to consider such a scheme during his budget considerations, because I do not believe we can get through the winter, and I say this with a lot of knowledge. We will lose a whole sector or a large percentage of the sector if we do not plan for the next six months and our budget has to do that.

That will be considered. The scheme referred to by Deputy Kelly is being looked at. There is also the broader issue of how we sustain our hospitality sector over the medium term, acknowledging and accepting that Covid-19 will have a significant impact on our economy for the full 12 months of 2021. If we accept that it has a specific impact on the food, accommodation, beverage and hospitality sector, then we have to look at other ways of helping the sector and the enterprises to come through, to preserve as much employment as we can in the sector, and to support people as effectively as we can. It is the one sector that is taking a greater hit than others.

It is interesting to note with regard to private coaches and other coach travel taking a big hit that it is hoped the significant allocation yesterday by the Cabinet of more than €100 million to fulfil the public health recommendations for school transport may help that sector. Education did not particularly welcome the fact that it was €100 million, but it could help the coach and bus sector to get through this. We have to be innovative in how we can get other things done while supporting this sector for when Covid is over. Retraining and the human capital programme are also significant.