Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
321. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the number of firms that have benefitted from the temporary wage subsidy scheme that were found to have not met the requirements for eligibility for the scheme; the amount that has been returned as a result; the amount outstanding in terms of repayments as of 31 December 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1193/22]
View answerThe Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which closed on 31 August 2020 and was replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) from 1 September 2020, provided financial support to approximately 67,500 employers in respect of 689,000 employees. The total cost of the scheme was c. €2.9 billion.
As part of the administration of the TWSS, Revenue carried out a programme of compliance checks on all employers who participated in the scheme to ensure that they were eligible to receive the supports and to ensure the funds were paid out to qualifying employees. Revenue have advised that 99.8% of these checks have been completed, with 153 cases ongoing. To date, Revenue has recouped over €31.5 million in overpayments from 1,786 participating employers, which represents around 2.7 %.
In addition, Revenue also completed a TWSS reconciliation scheme which identified an aggregate liability of €308 million, the majority of which related to the transitional period of the scheme, operated up to 5 May 2020, when €410 per week was paid to employers in respect of eligible employees. Therefore, when the compliance and reconciliation exercises are combined the aggregate amount of TWSS identified for recovery amounted to €324 million. To date, €256 million of this amount has been repaid to Revenue and €58 million is included in the tax debt warehouse. This leaves a balance of €10 million, of which €3 million is subject to appeal, and the remaining €7 million is in the process of being collected.
