The Minister for Finance has said today is a "tough, tough day" especially for small businesses but he reassured those who are closing their businesses and losing their jobs that they will be supported during this period.
Paschal Donohoe said substantial changes have been made to the wage subsidy scheme to support employers.
In addition, a cash payment will be made to closed businesses of up to about 10% of their turnover a week.
Mr Donohoe said he expects the country will move back to Level 3 in December and this is why the enhanced wage subsidy scheme and the Covid Restriction Support Scheme will be maintained up to January.
The Minister said he absolutely supports the move to Level 5 but that he thoroughly "interrogated the proposition" and the concerns presented by healthcare officials.
He said he had "challenged at length" the different views and data that were presented to Government because he was deeply aware of the human and economic costs of the move.
But Mr Donohoe said he is now "absolutely satisfied" that moving to Level 5 is the safest course of action.
He said he was lead to this view because of the positivity rate of the disease and the spread of the disease in Dublin, even though the county was at Level 3 measures for a number of weeks.
Paschal Donohoe said there are two pillars to the Government approach to Covid-19 - to redouble efforts to reduce transmission of Covid and to bring the transmission rate to an R number of below one, while also supporting employers and employees.
Meanwhile, Seamus Coffey, UCC economist and former chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, said that Ireland is set to have the highest budget deficit in the euro area in 2020, with a deficit set to be around 11.5%.
Mr Coffey said that all Euro Area governments are running these huge deficits and it is not neccessarily a bad thing because the ECB is adding so much liquidity to the market.
Because this is a global pandemic, affecting everyone, the economist said we can expect these borrowing conditions to remain benign over the near term.
However he warned that all this borrowing is adding to debt and could potentially mean problems down the line - in 10 or 15 years time.
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Speaking on Morning Ireland, Seamus Coffey said that as long as the crisis is ongoing, we are looking at temporary increases in spending for health and supports.
But he pointed out that while many of these temporary measures will end when the crisis ends, it is worth remembering that large spending increases in health, housing and health will probably be maintained in the future.
