Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The whole purpose of the wage subsidy plan and the changes we intend to make to it is to keep people in work. The other issues to which the Deputy has referred are best dealt with in other Government policy decisions. The purpose of the wage subsidy scheme is to keep people in work and to ensure they have a job in the future. More than 400,000 of our citizens have kept their jobs and have a good chance of being able to keep them in the future because of this scheme. That is what it is doing. As important as these other matters are, Government has to deal with them in other ways.

If I was to remove the wage subsidy scheme and some of the companies to which the Deputy refers were then to stop employing people who are on the wage subsidy scheme, he would be accusing me in relation to that. It is my duty to put in place schemes on behalf of the Government that give the best chance possible for keeping people at work and allowing them a good chance to have their job in the future. That is what I and the Government will continue to do.

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