Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue with the Taoiseach regarding the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS, which was introduced last March to help small businesses, and all businesses, to try to keep their employees and the employers connected in order that they would not have to go onto social welfare or be let go from work. When this scheme was introduced, it was a very good scheme and helped a lot of businesses to stay afloat. However, I now have some cases coming to me in which, when Revenue did some checks, it found that some businesses did not fully meet the criteria in the sense that their turnover is supposed to be down by 25%. In a number of these cases, when the businesses did their projections they had no business in March. They looked at all the options and looked at the scheme that was in place. They decided that in order to keep the loyalty of the employer and the employee intact, they would go with the TWSS. In one case, the owners of a company took out an overdraft to look at other options to try to create business, which they did. Their online business grew substantially in the meantime, leaving them in a position whereby their company was down 17% or 18%, rather than 25%, on turnover. As a result of all of this, when Revenue checked up on the company in recent weeks, it asked it to repay all the TWSS it got. If this is the way we are doing business, we will drive these small businesses out of business in a very short time. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this with the Minister for Finance and consider how Revenue is looking to recover this money. These businesses have never defaulted. The sole purpose of what they did was to keep their business going and to keep their employees employed, but they are now being penalised harshly for that. They are not looking for anything for nothing; they are just looking for perhaps a graduated refund of some nature because they still have a loss in their business. There now seems to be a tactic of trying to get this money back before the end of this year. I think this will put a shiver down the spine of every small business if it is trying to remain in operation through next year. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this and give me his comments.

See this speech in context