Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 December 2020
88. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Finance the reason an organisation (details supplied) has not been facilitated for the employment wage subsidy scheme for September 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43673/20]
View answerSection 28B of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provides for the introduction of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). The scheme commenced on 1 September 2020 and replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which ceased on 31 August 2020.
The EWSS is different to the TWSS in that it provides a flat-rate payment to employers and requires a separate registration process because the eligibility criteria is different. Where an eligible employer wishes to avail of the EWSS it is very important that the registration process is completed before any application for payment is made. Where the registration process is not completed, an application for payment cannot be processed. It is also not possible to complete the registration process on a retrospective basis and payments are only processed on a prospective basis (once registration is completed). The only exception relates to July and August where ‘sweepback’ payments were provided for.
The organisation in question first registered for the EWSS on 5 October 2020 and has received payments from that date onwards. It was not possible for the organisation to access the system for September 2020 because it was not registered for the scheme at that time. Revenue has advised me that it will make contact with the organisation in the coming days to clarify how the EWSS operates.
