Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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284. To ask the Minister for Finance if a matter relating to the temporary wage subsidy scheme (details supplied) will be investigated with the Revenue Commissioners; if contact will be made with the company in order to resolve the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14727/20]

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 real-time 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. These timelines require that employees were on the payroll at 29 February 2020 and that employers had fulfilled their PAYE reporting obligations for February 2020 before 15 March 2020. The 15 March deadline was subsequently revised to before 1 April 2020 by Revenue under its care and management provisions. These requirements are critical safeguards against abuse and exploitation of the scheme.

Revenue has advised me that the business in question is unable to access the TWSS because it did not file its January, February and March payroll submissions until 24 June, which was outside of the concessionary April deadline. Consequently, the TWSS system, which operates around the legislative dates, cannot calculate the ‘average net weekly pay’ (ARNWP) amount for the relevant employees, which is the key requirement on which the subsidy payments are based. It is not possible for Revenue to design a solution that facilitate access to the TWSS where statutory filing requirements are not adhered to.