Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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60. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on the exclusion of persons and businesses (details supplied) from the temporary wage subsidy scheme due to administrative errors caused by staff turnover in cases in which the payment dates of wages would otherwise have fallen within the remit of the scheme. [8580/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) is an emergency measure to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. It builds on data returned to Revenue through the PAYE system and as such is a fully automated solution. The automated solution, which was developed in a very short timeframe in response to the pandemic, is designed around the dates specified in the legislation. The timelines require that employees were on the employer payroll at 29 February 2020 and that the business had fulfilled its PAYE reporting obligations for February 2020 before 15 March 2020.

Revenue recently revised the eligibility conditions for the scheme under its care and management provisions, which extended the 15 March 2020 deadline to ‘before’ 1 April 2020. However, these concessionary arrangements can only operate for future payrolls and are not available on a retrospective basis for previous payrolls.

I am advised by Revenue that the business in question could not previously access the TWSS because it did not complete its payroll submission for February 2020 until after the revised ‘before’ 1 April 2020 deadline. However, having reviewed the exceptional circumstances that resulted in the late filing of the February 2020 payroll submission, Revenue is arranging access to the TWSS for the company. Revenue has also confirmed that it has made direct contact with the company to clarify certain matters.