Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State will know that the vast majority of companies that avail of the scheme desperately need it, but there will be some which experience the conditions allowed for under the scheme but which do not necessarily need it.

Companies that previously availed of the scheme and then paid out dividends to their shareholders would have been seen making big profits. The Minister of State can understand how that would annoy people, particularly those in businesses that are really struggling, who are playing by the rules and are genuinely in need. I know the scheme is open to everybody, but is there a mechanism in place to ensure such things do not happen? The Minister of State must have been contacted, because I was, by people who were deeply frustrated by reports of huge profits being made by companies that were supported during the pandemic. Some companies came through the pandemic while others did not, and some came through barely hanging on by their fingertips.