Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes

9:30 am

Mr. John McKeon:

I think there are issues. The question that has to be asked is: if the subsidy was not paid, would the company have temporarily laid the staff off and would they have ended up on PUP anyway? Would it have been right for the State to step in, particularly from a constitutional perspective and property rights perspective, and oblige an employer to keep workers on the payroll in a situation where the Government itself was closing down the ability of that company to generate revenue? There are complex issues here. It is not straightforward. I agree that these learnings and these things have to be looked at.