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

I was aware of the rates issue and I thank the Deputy for bringing it up. I will have my officials look into it because I appreciate that at this point in the year, given everything that has happened with this disease, the strain and anxiety that smaller hospitality businesses are facing is very intense. I will look into that for the Deputy.

On the EWSS, I need to indicate to the Dáil that I believe our health service will allow us to reach a point in the new year where we will need to phase out the EWSS. It is a scheme that has played an invaluable role in our economy, but it was primarily designed to deal with the threat of mass unemployment in our country. It has prevented the threat of mass unemployment, but we cannot find ourselves in a position as we move through 2022 that we have a labour market shortage and a high demand for workers while running the unemployment wage subsidy scheme at the same time. We are not at that point yet and that is why we have extended the scheme.

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