"I don't think these things will ever go back to the way they were before."
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that the future of the Irish economy is digital and is "not going to change back" due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, the Tánaiste said that the pandemic has "accelerated" the future of the economy by about 15 years.
"We always knew it, but I think the pandemic has accelerated it and I think the future of our economy is going to be green and is going to be digital," he said.
"The world has changed in the last year or two, we have probably come on 15 years in terms of the digital transformation.
"People who never bought things online now do. People who went to the ATM regularly haven't been for months. People who never shopped online before now shop online and get deliveries as a matter of course, and that has changed, and it's not going to change back."
Varadkar added that the transition will have "consequences" for a number of different sectors, however, he said that the world and people "have moved on".
"It does have consequences, it has consequences for post offices, it has consequences for traditional banking, it has consequences for traditional retail," he continued.
"I don't think these things will ever go back to the way they were before. The world has moved on and people have moved on."
The Tánaiste added that the government will be putting in place a range of measures to assist the sectors which are expected to be impacted the most by people transitioning to more digitalised transactions.
"In order to assist in this transformation, there are a few things we want to do. We're investing in broadband as you know, a huge contract of €3 million," he said.
The government will also put in place an €85 million digital fund which he said they will be giving "consideration to widening access of" over the coming months.
