Dáil debates

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No. 2) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages

 

7:30 pm

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

I never said I had the ability to bring in a different percentage contribution for which Deputy Doherty is calling. I simply made the point that I have the ability to vary some of the operation of this scheme during its lifetime. I also know many people, as does the Deputy, who are in part-time work and who have many different employers. I take his point that it is unlikely they will go from two hours to ten hours. It is possible, however, that the employer of somebody who is on ten hours may decide to employ them for two or three hours more and get a €150 subsidy for so doing. That is possible and we should be open to the fact that could happen.

The Deputy referred to the term "sector".

The term "sector" has been used in legislation, but it does not have any precedence in legislation such as this. We assessed this and found we could not access a term of sector that would have been legally viable for this approach here. Practically we would have ended up with all kinds of issues with one sector of the economy claiming it was getting the subsidy at one rate but wanting it at the other rate that another part of the economy was getting, and some parts of the economy claiming they were not getting this subsidy at all but their neighbours in a particular part of the economy were. I am very sceptical of whether it would have worked. As I said, I considered it earlier when putting this all together.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I answered the question about conditionality that was put to me by Deputy Nash. I answered at some length outlining why I felt it would not be appropriate. Deputy Boyd Barrett again said a measure of my empathy is whether I will meet people. The measure of my empathy is first what I can do through schemes such as this to try to support workers throughout our economy, which is what this scheme has done. I have raised this issue with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, since the Deputy first raised it with me. I have raised directly with her the concerns he raised. I hope that, if she sees fit, she would be able to meet him or listen to issues that have been raised by the groups he mentioned. I must act in deference to her. As she is the Minister with responsibility for those areas, it is appropriate that she engages with those groups first rather than my doing so.

I think those were all the questions that were put to me.

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