Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. We too very much welcome and support the Bill.As stated by Senator Casey, this is, hopefully, the final piece of Covid legislation to come before us, but it reflects what can be done when there is political will to save jobs and keep businesses afloat. While there were some difficulties in the early days in terms of Government not supporting non-rated businesses, that was resolved last year through later iterations of the CRSS payment.

I welcome the revisions in the Bill. I am conscious that thus far there has been a significant amount of debate around some of the detail in it. There are two issues I would like to touch on, the first of which relates to the Covid recognition payment. We are very supportive of this important payment and we welcome that workers will get the full net benefit of the payment because of the tax measures provided for under this Bill. However, it is important to reiterate the message conveyed by Senator Kyne that there is confusion and concern about the limited nature of the payment and to whom it will be made. A very narrow view has been taken by Government as to who should be entitled to it. We learned in April that those working in acute hospitals, vaccination and testing centres and section 38 organisations will get it, but there has been no update with regard to staff of section 39 organisations, those working in long-term residential home care services or voluntary and private nursing homes. While private nursing homes should, perhaps, look to themselves to better pay their workers, there is a real issue within section 39 organisations who are reliant on the State for their resources. The Government needs to step up to the mark and ensure that the Covid recognition payment is provided to those workers as well. Ultimately, many of those workers put their lives and the health and lives of their families on the line so that they could support the most vulnerable in society. The message today to the Minister, as a senior Minister in the Government, is that the Government needs to make an announcement, sooner rather than later, on the comprehensive list of workers eligible for this payment and it needs to be generous in spirit in ensuring the net is cast as widely as possible.

I will move on to the second issue. The extension and changes to the EWSS are welcome, but my colleague, Deputy Nash, and I retain a very deep concern about the failure by Government to effectively clawback EWSS payments that were not necessary. We know from replies to parliamentary questions from Deputy Nash that €267.8 million was given to firms to support wages and that some of those firms then went on to file dividend withholding tax returns. While we know a small number of those firms have made repayments and that a large number of them had made partial repayments, there remains a large number of firms that have pocketed the supports provided by the State to keep their businesses afloat yet at the same time they were able to pay dividends. That sends out an exceptionally poor message around the use of public resources to keep businesses afloat. I recall that last year the Revenue Commissioners approached a number of families who had childminders as employees. Those families did the right thing by those in their employment and put them on the EWSS, but months later they were told the employees did not qualify and they would have to repay that money to the Revenue Commissioners. Many of those families have limited resources so having to repay that money was an enormous challenge.

I have not had an opportunity to express my condolences to the Minister on the passing of his mother. By all accounts, she was a fantastic constituency canvasser in her time and, obviously, very proud of all of the Minister's achievements. I express my sympathies to the Minister and to all of his family.