Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
218. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Finance the reason the temporary wage subsidy scheme for the hospitality industry is based on earnings in January and February of 2020 where that industry would traditionally either close or have a quiet period in those months (details supplied). [19043/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraSection 28 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provides for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). The TWSS necessarily builds on data returned to Revenue through its real-time PAYE system. The core principles of the scheme are that:
- the business is suffering significant negative economic impact due to the pandemic,
- the employees in respect of whom the wage subsidy is claimed were included on the employer’s payroll on 29 February 2020, and
- the February 2020 payroll submissions were submitted by the employer to Revenue before, in general, 15 March 2020 but this was later extended by Revenue to 1 April 2020.
The latter two conditions were particularly designed to prevent abuse of the scheme.
Employers who did not have employees on their payroll on 29 February 2020 do not meet the eligibility criteria for the TWSS in relation to those employees and, cannot qualify for the scheme in respect of the employees concerned. For employees who were working with the employer on that date, the amount of the wage subsidy for each employee is calculated based on the average net weekly pay reported by the employer for January and February 2020.
As part of the ‘July Stimulus’ announced on 23 July, which has been published in the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No.2) Bill 2020, the Government is introducing the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). The EWSS will deliver an enterprise support to employers based on business eligibility and will deliver a per-head subsidy on a flat rate basis. It will not be linked to the average revenue net weekly pay which is currently the case for TWSS.
The EWSS will replace the TWSS from 1 September. Both the TWSS and EWSS will run in parallel from 31 July until the TWSS expires at the end of August. This is in order to provide additional flexibility to employers with new hires and seasonal workers who were not previously eligible to be paid via TWSS and who may now qualify for EWSS.
The EWSS will be an economy-wide support, open to all sectors. The primary criterion for qualification is that the employer must demonstrate that they are operating at no more than 70% turnover from the period July to December 2020 compared to the same period last year.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is a matter for the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
