Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The Government is working on the detail of a temporary employment subsidy scheme, the purpose of which will be to help the economy retain its productive capacity and help employers to retain the labour, knowledge and skills of the workforce, thereby supporting a faster return to sustainable growth; help employees to retain their jobs; and ensure that economic and fiscal stability is promoted by avoiding the costs of unemployment, including statutory redundancy payments and the longer-term cost of social welfare.

It is proposed the scheme will involve paying a subsidy to firms to retain a person in employment who may otherwise have been made redundant.

The scheme is intended to apply to companies in the manufacturing or internationally traded service sectors that are currently engaged in exporting. In addition, in order to qualify for support it is intended that a company must not have been in difficulty on 1 July 2008, and a financial assessment must establish that it is now facing such difficulties as a result of the global and financial economic crisis that redundancies are likely to have to be considered within 12 months. It is also intended that a company must also be judged to be viable and capable of growth in the medium term to receive support under the scheme.

See this speech in context