Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have spent about €10 billion supporting, at various points over the course of the pandemic, approximately 700,000 jobs and that investment is really significant. I have argued over the last two years, along with my colleagues in the Labour Party, for the attachment of significant labour, social, economic and environmental conditions and it would be important for the Minister to continue to reflect on that. He has said that it may be the case that a form of short-time work scheme will evolve out of the EWSS to support sectors that may be impacted over the next year or two. Inevitably, for some sectors the recovery will be uneven and supports will be required. In that context, it is important for the Minister to keep this entire question under review because we need to ensure that we get value for money from these kinds of State investments and that we use these huge transfers of public money into private hands to drive better outcomes for working people and society more generally.

At the outset, in his response to Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, the Minister said that he anticipated low levels of dividend payments in the case of firms that benefited from the wage subsidy schemes. The truth is that we simply do not know how many firms have decided to pay out dividends to their shareholders and how many have decided not to do so. It would be very useful for the Revenue Commissioners to undertake the kind of audit I suggested and if it is the case that the Minister is considering keeping under review the question of attaching forms of conditionality to any successor schemes that might emerge, then from a public policy point of view and in the interests of the taxpayer, that would be important.