Mr. Niall Cody:

Last week, I heard on the radio about people taking out finance to clear their debt warehousing. Why would people do that? I hear many commentators talking about this. Our key message is to keep viable businesses in place. The debt warehouse was introduced to keep viable businesses in place when they could not trade properly. It would not make any sense for us to suddenly pull the shutters down on everybody and say that they have to pay.

The key message I want to get out today is that businesses need to keep their current tax up-to-date and paid. That is the proof that they are viable businesses. We will make appropriate tailored arrangements for businesses to clear the warehouse over the period that is necessary for them to keep their current finances up-to-date, having regard to their financial position. At the end of this process, whenever that is, we want businesses to continue to trade.

We never had a debt warehouse before. We are now essentially managing a loan portfolio. We have chatted about the challenge for the Collector General and his staff who are used to dealing with normal tax debt. They now have to try to take different approach. We had to stand on our head through the pandemic. Our nature is to collect money, but we became a payment agency for a while. We now have to manage the fallout of that. We want to manage it in the best interests of businesses and the Exchequer. It is far better for the Exchequer that businesses continue to function, employing people and paying tax.