Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The scheme as set out in the statute will operate as a refund scheme. Section 26(5) provides that following the notification by the employer of the payment of the salary to the employee the employer can contact the Revenue Commissioners and seek the subsidy. The only concern I have is that the Revenue, when it was assessing whether to pay the subsidy, will have to ensure that the employer qualifies and comes within the criteria set out in the legislation. Section 26(2) provides that the fundamental qualifying requirement is that the employer must be unable to pay the salary. My concern is that the Revenue may adopt a literal approach to statutory interpretation and argue that since the employer was able in the first instance to pay the employee the salary, then it would not suffer inability to pay. It may be beneficial to consider putting an amendment in the Seanad stating that inability to pay would arise save for the operation of this temporary wage subsidy scheme. I would be interested to hear what the Minister has to say in this respect.

See this speech in context