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

I thank the Deputies for the points they made, some of which I will try to address.

First, in terms of the number of covered companies and employers that have registered for the support scheme, this reminds me of where we were with the CRSS, in that registration at the start of the scheme tended to be lower than I expected. When we launched the scheme, I was asked in the early phase of that why more employers did not register. What happened is that towards the latter end of the registration, the number of companies in the scheme increased considerably. While I take the point that the figure at the moment of less than 500 is low, it is what I expected and the key point will be how many companies are registered as we move into October, and we will certainly look at that.

Regarding awareness about the scheme, I take the point that was made by the Deputy. We will examine how we can publicise and explain the scheme a bit more because it is a good scheme, and we want to make sure businesses are aware of it.

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