Mr. Niall Cody:

The debt warehousing was an initiative that we came up with back in March 2020. We suspended enforcement action and the collection of interest. Then, in discussions with the Department of Finance, when we were looking at how to manage through the pandemic with public health restrictions, we proposed this idea of the debt warehousing system, which would allow businesses, particularly small businesses, to submit their VAT and employer returns but not have to pay it on one condition – that they continue sending in their returns.

The scheme had a couple of periods. The first was totally zero interest rate and nothing had to happen. There was then to be a second period. It kept getting extended. The original plan was that the warehouse, like all of the pandemic stuff, would finish up. It then ran. Last November, when there were public health restrictions again and it looked like there were going to be serious issues around Covid, it was extended until the end of April for businesses that were impacted by the health restrictions. They then had a year interest-free. For some businesses, it would expire at the end of December and for others it would expire at the end of April 2022. A year hence, they were to agree arrangements with us for repayment of that. The energy crisis and Ukraine war then all came about, so we decided that we would postpone that period for a year.

We are very conscious of small businesses, with which we deal all the time. We have a strong record of dealing with businesses that engage with us. We have given that further window to allow businesses to get on with the business of trading away, keeping employment going-----