Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 November 2020
203. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Finance if Ireland has availed of or applied to the SURE scheme to help support the economy through the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36653/20]
View answerIn the Budget 2021 speech, I announced the Irish Government’s decision to make a formal application to the European Commission for funding under the Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) Instrument. The application was submitted on the 26th of October.
That application has now been assessed and accepted by the Commission. On foot of this assessment, the Commission published a proposal for Council Implementing Decision on 16th November. Once this draft Decision is adopted by the EU Council, the Commission will include Ireland’s loan amount in their bond issuance calendar. Draw down of the loan by Ireland is likely to happen in the first half of 2021.
The SURE instrument provides financial assistance by the European Commission to member states in the form of loans of up to €100 billion in total, and takes advantage of the Commission’s strong AAA credit rating. To date, 17 countries have applied for funding totalling €87.9 billion. Ireland is the 18th country applying, for a total amount of €2.474 billion. This brings the total amount committed under SURE to €90.3 billion. The scheme is now live and to date the Commission has issued social bonds under the scheme to a combined value of €31 billion to Poland, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia.
The amount of the Irish application is based on costs already expended by the Government as part of the Covid-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which satisfied the conditions for an application.
As the Deputy will be aware, the TWSS was introduced on 26 March to support firm viability and preserve the relationship between the employer and employee insofar as is possible by subsidising a portion of the employer wage bill in circumstances where the employer’s business has been negatively impacted by the restrictions introduced to stop the spread of COVID-19. Nearly 70,000 employers registered for the scheme. €2.7bn was spent supporting over 600,000 individual employees over the life of the scheme, which ended on 31 August 2020.
