Prime Minister António Costa has told the Irish Times he stands by a deal to grant €11 million a year to host the Web Summit as the pandemic forced the event to move online this year. There has been mounting criticism of the deal in Portugal after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the event to be held online, wiping out the income that would have been spent in the local economy by conference attendees, while the increased adoption of video-conferencing has raised questions about the future of the business model itself.