Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I support the two motions before the House. Obviously it is necessary to extend these schemes but I believe the Government should go further. It should consider tapered measures as workers return to work. Many will not go back to work full time initially. Many will go back on 20 hours per week or will experience some reduction in their hours but no worker should be left short of money or struggling to survive.

I wish to raise the issue of grants and supports for certain sectors. There is a sports complex in Ballyfermot that I have raised a number of times in the Dáil. It is a not-for-profit organisation that does not pay VAT. It has not received any grants or financial support over the last period. Taxi drivers, circus and fairground owners have also been left to flounder in the community.

I seek clarification from the Minister on one specific issue related to the TWSS which I raised with the Taoiseach in March and again recently. I sent an email to the Taoiseach about it and received a reply telling me that it had been forwarded to the Department of Social Protection. Then I received another email telling me that my query had been forwarded to the Department of Finance. The TWSS is a very necessary scheme which I fully support. I will outline my understanding of the scheme. The Government and Revenue devised the scheme in order to keep companies open and to keep workers as close to their workplace as possible. Let us say the gross pay of a worker is €100 and after tax the net income would be €80. The Government agreed to forfeit the tax revenue from the €100 and that the State would subsidise the wages of workers up to €410 per week. Companies could top that up if they so wished. The normal 11.5% rate of PRSI was reduced to 0.5% and there was a facility under Revenue's TWSS for the employer to pay that but the fact of the matter is that very few companies are paying that tax. Workers are now experiencing this as a pay cut, in effect. These workers have been on the front line since March 2020. They can be considered essential workers and they see this tax on their net income as a pay cut. Workers are facing tax bills of between €1,000 and €2,500. This must be dealt with. If the Minister could sit down with the Revenue Commissioners to introduce this scheme and agree to forfeit the tax on gross pay, surely he can consider forfeiting the tax on net pay. Failing that, he must put something in place to assist these workers.

Workers in McAuley Pharmacy are calling on their employer to pay the tax but the employer will not do so. Staff have met and are discussing conducting a ballot on industrial action. They feel really let down. These are workers whose health and well-being was tested in March, April and May of last year. They were afraid when going home to their families in case they would bring Covid home. These are essential workers who were in meat plants and other important areas. We have clapped for them so many times and wished them well but they are now facing tax liabilities on their net pay, as such.

I urge the Minister to make a point of dealing with this. These workers should not be facing tax bills and I do not think the Government foresaw these workers having to take what amounts to a pay cut in the form of a tax obligation. I ask the Minister to respond on this. Workers want to know what is happening in this regard. They will react. I have had many workers contacting me about this matter. I have heard of multinational companies making profits of €1.5 million whose workers are obliged to pay this tax. It is absolutely shocking that workers are in this situation.

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