I propose to take Questions Nos. 235, 245 and 272 together.
The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which commenced on 1 September 2020 (I July for certain newly hired employees and seasonal workers), provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers and gross pay of eligible employees on their payroll.
The EWSS replaces the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) which enabled employees, whose employers were affected by the pandemic, to receive significant supports through (employer) payroll systems. Revenue has begun to publish weekly statistics updates on the EWSS as employers continue to complete the registration process. These statistics are available at link: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/number-of-taxpayers-and-returns/covid-19-wage-subsidy-scheme-statistics.aspx.
As shown in the publications at the above link, by 17 September 2020, over 34,300 employers had registered for EWSS. The statistics (dated 17 September) show the breakdown of the registered employers by size, sector and county.
Once the registration process is completed, employers must then file payslips with Revenue for eligible employees in respect of relevant pay periods. Until these processes are completed it is not possible to know the number of employees (nor their characteristics or locations) for which subsidies are being claimed by their employers.
As the EWSS provides payments to employers rather employees, the issue of top-ups or additional payments (to employees) does not arise. This is different to the TWSS where in excess of 80% of employees regularly received a top-up additional payment from their employers.
The payslip information for EWSS recipient employers for the period 1 September onwards will be available in October and Revenue has confirmed that it will publish this information as soon after that as is practical.