100,000 Return to Work, 12,000 Businesses Reopen

Tanaiste and Minister for the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment (DETE), Leo Varadkar made an announcement last week that 12,000 businesses are set to reopen, with 100,000 people returning to work, and on Monday, May 10^th, they did so.

After being out of work for over a year now, Irish employees were itching to get back to their normal day-to-day lives, and Tanaiste Varadkar expressed his delight to this in his statement, saying “This is a moment that businesses across Ireland have been waiting for”.

Varadkar: “As Minister for Enterprise I want to thank companies for their efforts and those of their staff in getting to this point. Thanks to your diligence in fighting the pandemic, and those of the general public, we can move on to the next phase of reopening”.

“Businesses can also be reassured that Government financial supports will remain in place until the end of June, and that we are working on new financial supports for those most affected by the lockdown”.

”These will be announced at the end of May. Businesses reopening tomorrow will receive a double CRSS payment for each of the next two weeks to help with the cost of reopening”.

Work from Home if Possible

However, Varadkar remains cautious of the possibility of a new wave of COVID-19 and urges those itching to return to normality to hang in a little longer and work from home where possible.

“Importantly, we are still asking people to work from home wherever possible. The virus is still circulating, and around two thirds of the adult population have yet to receive the vaccine”.

”Mixing in the workplace can allow the virus to spread, so we all need to continue playing our part in defeating this cruel virus”.

The DETE is doing everything in its negotiable power to get the population of Ireland and its economy back on its feet, one step at a time, and the reopening of 12,000 businesses from Monday was a considerable step in the right direction.