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

I thank the Deputy for his questions. The key issue first is what the Government has done to try to offer support to companies that will be facing difficulty or viability challenges as we exit from the emergency supports that are in place. As the committee will be aware, we have put in place two significant legislative changes to try to provide support to smaller businesses, in particular, that find themselves in this difficult point. First, we amended the Companies Act 2014 through an Act that was brought in place recently to extend the examinership process and increase the threshold at which a company is deemed unable its debts up to €50,000. That was a change made by the Government to help companies manage this moment of transition. We have also brought in the small company administrative rescue process, SCARP, which is a kind of dedicated and specific process to help small and micro companies that may have to go through a period of restructuring. We have looked to amend the examinership model to help companies in that way. Critically, we have made changes in our procedures to help companies when they approach this point.

On the Deputy's question whether we anticipate how many companies will not be in a position to repay their debts, again, the answer is not at the moment. However, Revenue will begin the process of outreach to those minority of companies that have continued to avail of warehousing and have not paid back any of their debt at all. That is a small minority of companies.

Later in the year, when that outreach is complete, I think we will have a better idea as to what kind of liability issue we will face or whether a larger share of companies might be unviable than would normally be the case. Revenue will start making contact with those businesses imminently. It is worth noting, however, that 85% of companies have now either paid back their taxes in full in the month they were due or begun the process of doing so, showing, I hope, that we have got the balance right to date.

In response to Deputy Doherty's final question as to whether we are considering amending the provisions we have in place in respect of an interest rate of zero increasing to 1% and then all the way to 3%, we are not at the moment. I would not give consideration to any change at all before we do the budget. The engagement now under way between the Revenue Commissioners and these 12,000 businesses will, I think, give us a helpful steer as to what the payment capacity will be like.