Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Bill on what is primarily a public health issue. We can never acknowledge or thank enough the people serving on the front line in our health service, shops and transport for the efforts they are making on behalf of the nation.

I want to use the opportunity to call for any manufacturers who can help with the provision of protective gear for our public health workers to come forward and make this gear available, because it is needed. In Mullingar hospital last night, a senior clinician used Facebook to ask people if they have any garments in hairdressers or such to make this gear available. I think it is very important that anybody who can help would do so. I want to focus my attention, in the limited time, on the parts of the Bill dealing with employers and small and medium enterprises, SMEs. One sure thing is that this virus will pass, and we want to ensure that sustainable, viable businesses are protected for the duration of the crisis, to ensure that employees have jobs to return to in a number of weeks or months. I acknowledge that there has been a very swift response.

I welcome the change of the Covid-19 payment to €350 per week. Only last week, when we were debating here, the Government seemed reluctant to even allow employers themselves to increase that payment. The change is very welcome. There are unintended consequences in that change. Some people, due to the hours they were working, are perhaps now financially better off when in receipt of the Covid-19 payment. We have to think of the unintended consequences, in that certain areas and essential services may have difficulty in recruiting or retaining staff in those areas. I want to raise a number of issues about the temporary wage subsidy and hope the Minister can bring clarity to them. I am told that the wage subsidy is only paid to businesses that have no tax liabilities. Any SMEs that may have struggled or have had some marginal arrears are disqualified from applying. If that is the case, one may see certain small companies laying people off and just going for the €350. I do not think that is the Minister's intention and that needs to be looked at. Revenue's website states:

Income tax, USC, LPT, if applicable, and PRSI are not deducted from the Temporary Wage Subsidy. However, the Subsidy will be liable to Income Tax and USC on review at the end of the year.

Is the subsidy liable for tax or not? If it is, people need to be made aware of it, and if not, it needs to be clarified.

Another matter is that if one declares a 25% reduction in turnover, one is effectively saying that the business is insolvent. Are employers who were prudent and put by some money to be precluded from availing of this provision? Will employees on a lower wage receive more than some employees on a higher wage? The net effect of that will be that certain companies, instead of retaining the employer-employee relationship, which I think is the Minister's intention, will just temporarily lay people off, and that needs to be looked at. We will table amendments on Committee Stage about commercial rates and commercial leases, as well as examinerships, which I will speak to.

I welcome the intervention by the Minister and the Central Bank about insurance cover. Keep on top of that. SMEs took out legitimate cover and are entitled to compensation now. Everything must be done to ensure that this happens in a timely fashion. We cannot have protracted arguments over months and years. Liquidity is not the Minister's responsibility, but the responsibility of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. Asking businesses to take out loans that they will have to repay at interest rates of up to 7%, as they look at the edge of a cliff, is not the answer.

We need to examine how to get much-needed liquidity into viable sustainable businesses now, before it is too late.

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