Ms Fiona O'Dea:

SCARP is doing what it set out to do. It is saving viable companies that would have otherwise gone into liquidation; therefore, it is saving jobs. There are reports of more than 600 jobs being saved at the end of last year. It is maximising the total value for creditors who in many instances may be employers themselves. There may be a number of factors that influence the take-up rate. One might be entry requirements for SCARP. SCARP is there but it is not to be used to prop up economically unviable companies. It must be used for viable companies. Not all companies experiencing financial difficulties are viable. It may be the impact of the extension of the Revenue's debt warehousing scheme where companies might decide not to enter into SCARP. What is also important and what cannot be quantified, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is that SCARP can encourage creditors to engage constructively with viable companies in distress, so they may not need to enter a formal process and can restructure outside the process. Therefore, there is a value in having SCARP.

The Department's role was to provide a sustainable regulatory framework. We did that at the height of Covid to respond to the immediate impacts of that. SCARP is now a valuable part of our insolvency toolkit. The Department does not promote it; it is not our role to promote and encourage it. Our role is more one of raising awareness that this process exists. That is the role the Department plays. When we commenced the process, Ms Keane and her team were very much involved in putting an integrated communications strategy in place using print media and social media and a really good information leaflet which is available on the Department's website. It is very easy to read and understand. We continue with those communication campaigns on an ongoing basis, largely through social media.

It is not the Department's role to push companies into SCARP. It is a process that is available and the Department has made that available.