Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not like to see any business cutting people's pay and I know the Deputy does not either and nor does anyone in the House. The reason a company qualifies for the wage subsidy scheme is because it cannot afford to pay the wages. While most companies are topping up the wage subsidy scheme, some cannot even afford to do so. This is the situation we are in. We have had an enormous shock to our economy and the reason these companies, many of which used to be very successful and profitable, qualify at all for the wage subsidy scheme is because they cannot afford to pay the wages anymore. Were it not for the wage subsidy scheme, we would not be speaking about pay cuts for the workers about whom the Deputy has spoken because they would probably be redundant already.

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