Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister says it is similar to a grant. Is it not the case that, in the absence of the Covid restrictions support scheme, a company might have a tax liability of €10,000 at the end of the year, while with the Covid restrictions support scheme, it is receiving €3,000 over the period in which it is restricted, and so has a tax liability of €13,000? Its tax liability goes up to the amount that it availed of in cash payments. Will the Minister explain that? I will not get bogged down talking about this grant or whatever it is. It is a cash injection into the company and the company ends up paying it back through not being able to offset some of its profits later. There is a benefit to all of that.

The Minister asked what I would do with suppliers which supply non-essential retailers. I would provide them with the support. They would have to have a downturn of 75%. This is not a grant. It is a cash flow issue for the State, in a way. Businesses are able to offset these costs against taxable profits anyway. It is a matter of making sure that those services survive. There is an argument that they could go and try to find new markets. It is not as easy as that, especially when the whole State is in a level 5 scenario, which is where we are now and may end up being for some time in the future. I am not suggesting that this is easy. I am suggesting that other areas have battled with this and found ways to deal with this. If one looks at the financial stability report, it shows the importance of the service sector and how it is connected to what are deemed as red companies, which are companies that are most at risk. Supporting the companies because they have physical premises or a building but not supporting the service just does not make sense.

I will leave that there. Much of what we discussed and teased out is also in my amendment later on, so that does not need further discussion, in my view.