Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I would appreciate if the Deputy would provide me with details of the examples he gave. If there is an eight-week delay in processing the applications for the enterprise support grant, I would be keen to know that and I would check up with the relevant authorities as to why that happened. Similarly, if there are instances where an application under the credit guarantee scheme was refused only for the same bank to approve the loan under a separate scheme, I would appreciate if the Deputy would provide the details because I would get my Department to follow up.

With regard to the pandemic unemployment payment, that is obviously a matter for the budget and the Ministers for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance to decide. My understanding is this will not be exclusively a matter for the budget process and we may need an ongoing review process. We will have to establish a recovery fund later this year which will give us flexibility in how we manage the pandemic into next year. That may well include revisions, extensions and alterations, as appropriate, to either the pandemic unemployment payment or the employment wage subsidy scheme. However, that is not an issue for me to decide. It is for the Cabinet collectively to decide in the remaining months of this year.

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