A new report has warned that half of the country's restaurants could close without an emergency grant aid package from the Government.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland says that if 100,000 workers were to remain unemployed for a full year, it would cost the Exchequer around €2 billion in increased social protection expenditure, €500 million in lost payroll taxes and €240 million in lost VAT. 

while local authorities would be down about €52m in lost commercial rates.

Independent economist Jim Power and Sean Collender, owner of the Dublin-based Pakistani and Eastern restaurant collective Kinara Group, joined us to discuss this.