Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 to the House. This legislation will give effect to some of the decisions announced on 1 June as part of the Government's economic plan, which sets out a new phase of supports for this next stage of recovery as businesses reopen. This Bill is relatively short but it provides certainty to businesses as public health restrictions are eased and allows them to plan ahead as they reopen and resume normal activity. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of the Revenue Commissioners and the staff who operated the various schemes, including the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, that provided much needed support to businesses in a very responsive way.

The Bill is relatively short and contains 16 sections. In the time available to me, I will run through some of the detail of the main sections of the Bill. In brief, the first 12 sections deal with the various business supports and the later sections deal with amendments to the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 and the financial resolution passed by the Dáil on 19 May.

Section 2 provides for the extension of the employment wage subsidy scheme to 31 December 2021 and the retention of the current enhanced subsidy rates until 30 September 2021. The EWSS is a central pillar of our response to this pandemic, supporting businesses, encouraging employment and helping to maintain the link between employers and employees. As of 8 July 2021, direct subsidy payments of over €3.8 billion have been made with an additional €627 million given in PRSI relief to over 50,500 employers in respect of over 609,700 workers.

Sections 3 and 4 make a number of changes in respect of the Covid restrictions support scheme, including the extension of the scheme to September 2021. In addition, section 4 provides for enhanced restart week payments under the scheme for businesses reopening after a period of restrictions. The section also provides for a double week payment of the CRSS from the week commencing 5 July for a period of two weeks, subject to the statutory cap of €5,000 per week. I remain convinced that this scheme has achieved its objective of providing targeted support to businesses that were forced to close or restrict access to their premises on foot of public health restrictions. As of 8 July, there are 22,800 businesses with 26,800 premises registered with Revenue for the CRSS. Some €647 million has been claimed by businesses under the scheme, with almost 12,000 premises claiming restart payments as the economy has begun to reopen.

Section 5 provides for the business resumption support scheme, BRSS, which is a new support for businesses that were significantly impacted throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. To qualify under the scheme, a business must be able to demonstrate that its turnover during the defined specified period of 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021 will be no more than 25% of its turnover in 2019. Qualifying businesses will be able to make a claim for a payment calculated on the basis of three weeks at 10% of the first €20,000 weekly turnover, and 5% thereafter, based on average turnover for 2019-----