Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand and accept the point Deputy Richmond makes. When we pick any performance threshold for being able to move on to what is a very valuable subsidy programme, there will always be some businesses that are just outside that threshold. I know that at the end of last year there were companies that traded very well from September into December. Things changed at the end of December but they were still trading better in terms of their turnover not being down by 30% in comparison with 2019. I am not sure how many businesses were in that category but we have heard about some of them.

Unfortunately most companies in the hospitality sector did not have too much difficulty meeting the -30% performance level because of how tough trading was last year but there were a few outside of it.

On what could be done about it, I did not give a lot of in-depth consideration to changing the -30% level to make it easier for companies to come in because the 30% decline figure has been in place for over 18 months in the different wage subsidy schemes we have had in place. I am aware that the longer we maintain these schemes it can create perverse incentives whereby it is safer for some employers to be on them than it is to continue trading because they have a guaranteed payment of up to €350 per employee. I am aware of that as a risk.