Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The temporary Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme, TWSS, was announced on 24 March 2020 and ran until 31 August 2020. It replaced the Revenue employer Covid-19 refund scheme. It allowed employers to continue to pay their employees during Covid-19. It aimed to keep employees registered with their employers so that they could get back to work quickly after the pandemic. The employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, which replaced the TWSS, came to an end in May 2022 after two years. The EWSS was the biggest and most important of the wage schemes that were introduced at the height of the pandemic. These schemes helped prevent mass unemployment in our economy during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Along with schemes such as the pandemic unemployment payment, they ensured State injection of investment in the economy so that we did not enter into deep recession. The measures introduced by the Government during Covid-19 saved thousands of jobs, protected livelihoods and ensured people could continue to pay their bills when the economy was effectively shut down at times to protect lives. However, those who continued to work during lockdowns such as front-line and essential workers and who received TWSS payments are now facing bills from the Revenue Commissioners. I have been contacted by constituents in County Tipperary who have been impacted by this. They feel it is wrong that they are now facing bills from Revenue particularly in the lead-up to Christmas after their genuine and honest efforts to continue working when the country was in various lockdowns. These people, for the most part, continued to work the same hours for the same pay. They were no better off financially by doing this even if they were paid normally. By normally, I mean that they were paid without their employers having claimed the TWSS, yet they now face this tax burden.

I ask the Minister of State to not burden these people who continued to work and to keep essential services running in this country at considerable risk to their own health with these additional tax bills now. Their efforts to work at a time there was considerable risk in doing so should be recognised by not retrospectively face these taxes. They worked the same hours for the same pay and now face a bill as a result. I ask that these tax bills are not placed on the people who worked so hard during the Covid-19 pandemic to keep our country open.

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