Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to take this debate. I wish him every success in his new role. I know what an honour it is.

I ask that the Minister, the Department for Finance and, more specifically, the Revenue Commissioners conduct a full review into how Aer Lingus operated the wage subsidy scheme from March 2020 up to September 2020, when the replacement employee wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, was introduced. The Minister of State may be aware that I had a small part in the establishment of the wage subsidy scheme in March. It was established to maintain a connection between employees and their employers during what we believed to be temporary difficult times, which we now know will last a lot longer. Staff needed to be temporarily laid off, not working or on reduced hours. In order to apply the wage subsidy scheme, companies needed to be able to show a 25% reduction in their overall turnover, which Aer Lingus could certainly have done given that international travel crashed overnight. It is particularly pertinent that an employee receiving the wage subsidy payment whose work was reduced to three days or fewer a week could also apply for the short-time working scheme, one of the other income supports available from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

The detail of the operation of the wage subsidy scheme was tailored around the cohorts we knew would lose their work. Up to a maximum of €410 per week could be reclaimed for each qualifying person and a flat rate of €350, which matched the rate of the equally important pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, which was introduced at the same time, could be claimed by the employer for each employee.

Aer Lingus is a blue chip company in this country and, although it is no longer owned by Irish interests, it is an organisation for which we have great respect and grá. Every single Irish person connects and identifies with that shamrock on the end of each of its planes. We expect a certain level of interaction with employees from such a blue chip company and for it to treat its employees a certain way. The representations I have got from those employees over recent weeks regarding how they were dealt with and, particularly, how the wage subsidy scheme was operated are absolutely heartbreaking to read. People tell me their earnings dropped to as little as €317 per fortnight, which beggars belief when the minimum payment was €350 per week.They tell me that it is by far the most stressful and time-consuming battle that they have ever experienced with their employer. I have been told that what is failing to be mentioned is the amount of hurt and damage it is having and the effect it is having on employees. Never before has people's mental health been so heavily affected by the sheer lack of empathy and professionalism of a company towards its employees. A man said that to say it has been difficult is an understatement, and it has been for everybody. Employees should have been entitled to claim the part-time payment from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection since the end of March, as was clearly stated and continues to be so by the Revenue Commissioners. A lady who works in ground operations told me that she has never received the full Covid payment, as the company has been deducting her parental leave from her payment. She asked if Aer Lingus was claiming the full Covid payment for her.

That is why I am asking the Minister of State for a full review to be conducted by the Revenue Commissioners and for the publication of the compliance reports that the Revenue Commissioners would have completed on Aer Lingus over recent months. One of two things has happened. One is that the allocation of the J9 PRSI classification, which was part of the wage subsidy scheme at the beginning, forced Aer Lingus into a position of not being able to sign the documents required for all of those people who were earning only 50% or 30% of their pre-Covid payment wages to be able to access the short-time working scheme. If that is the case, then it was an error in the application of the short-time working scheme in co-operation with the wage subsidy scheme. It is incumbent upon Revenue to reflect on the operations, and maybe not just for Aer Lingus but for many other companies. The other thing that may have happened, which is more sinister but is as is felt, and it is unfortunate that employees would feel this about their own organisation, is that the full balance that was reclaimable by Aer Lingus for and on behalf of the individual employees was claimed but just was not passed on to the employees.

It is as important for Aer Lingus to prove that that is not the case as it is to have a look at the J9 PRSI classification to ensure that the company's employees would able to access the short-time working scheme. Therefore, I am asking for a full review to be conducted by the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners into the operation of the short-time working scheme and the wage subsidy scheme on behalf of Aer Lingus from March to September 2020.