“We do need to have a level playing field in relation to the definition of ‘non-essential goods'”.
Paschal Donohoe has confirmed that children’s clothes are not deemed as essential, according to the government’s current outlook.
Speaking to Bryan Dobson on Friday afternoon, the Minister for Finance said that the government is doing this because of the “need to be fair to all retailers in our country”.
He said: “We have a broader responsibility of how we can protect the public health of those that we serve, and additional economic responsibilities regarding fairness to those who have made decisions that have now led to the closure of businesses.”
Dobson then asked why it was the case that you can buy a bottle of wine, but not underwear for a child.
Donohoe replied: “When we’re dealing with public health guidance that has such complexity to it, you could always point at raise to different issues of consistency in relation to what’s being implemented across an entire economy.”
You can listen to the interview in its entirety here.
This comes the day after a controversial interview aired on RTÉ, that saw Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Damien English, utter the words “clothes are not essential”.
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