Written answers

Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Covid-19 Pandemic Supports

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of businesses that have availed of each of the Covid-19 supports put in place by his Department; the number of employees that have availed of each scheme; the cost to date of each scheme in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8008/20]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Revenue has worked with my Department to introduce a series of measures and supports to help businesses deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further details on each of these measures and some clarifications in respect of existing measures which are relevant can be found on the Revenue website at the following link: .

Many of these supports are simplifications of existing administrative practices or reprioritising of certain activities by Revenue. As such, I am advised that it is not possible to provide the numbers of businesses availing of these separately to normal procedures. Many of the measures will have only a temporary cash flow impact and are expected to be Exchequer neutral in terms of cost overall.

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and the proposed ‘warehousing’ of certain COVID-19 related tax debts are two of the most significant measures introduced to support businesses.

Revenue published an initial set of statistics on the operation of the TWSS on 9 April 2020, which have been updated and extended on a weekly basis since then. This information is available at . The data published include the cost of the scheme to date as well as detailed information on employers and employees in receipt of payments. Revenue has advised me that it is continuing to undertake further analysis of the TWSS and will publish further updated and expanded statistics on a regular basis. These updates will also be published at the link above.

In relation to tax debt management, I am advised by Revenue that measures introduced to assist businesses experiencing cashflow and trading difficulties have provided vital liquidity support to the value of €1.3 billion to the end of April. These measures have benefitted in excess of 61,000 VAT and PAYE registered businesses. Revenue is analysing debt incurred since the onset of the pandemic crisis and will publish further information on this in due course.

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