Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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330. To ask the Minister for Finance if a company can send a worker who is in receipt of the wage subsidy scheme or the employment support scheme to another EU country to work during the period they are on the scheme even in cases in which the other EU country was not their original or usual workplace in the period prior to been placed on the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35433/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), was legislated for under the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No. 2) Act 2020. The EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support that focuses primarily on business eligibility. The scheme provides a subsidy to qualifying employers based on the number of qualifying employees on the employer’s payroll and the level of gross pay paid to such employees. The scheme is not an income support for employees, but is a stand-alone measure to preserve the link between employee and employer and support firm viability through an unprecedented enterprise environment and it is based on clear, objective criteria that may be determined by the Revenue Commissioners.

The scheme has no role in relation to the employer/employee relationship in so far as the terms, conditions and entitlements of the employment are concerned. Such matters would be expressly outside of the remit of the Revenue Commissioners.

In terms of employer eligibility, the EWSS legislation requires that immediately at the end of each month, from August 2020 onwards, each employer availing of the EWSS must carry out a self-review of its business circumstances. Following such review, if it is manifest to the employer that it no longer will meet the eligibility test for qualification for the scheme, namely, at least a 30 per cent reduction in business turnover or customer orders in the period from 1 July to 31 December 2020 by reference to the corresponding 2019 period, then the employer must immediately cease claiming wage subsidy payments. Additionally, and unlike the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), the employer must have a tax clearance certificate to be eligible to join the EWSS and must continue to meet the requirements for tax clearance throughout the scheme.

The administration of the EWSS has been placed under the care and management of Revenue, as was done with its predecessor, the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). While Revenue’s focus on the EWSS in its early stages is concentrated on getting the scheme up and running and ensuring that all employers who are eligible for subsidy payments receive the payments in a timely manner, I have no doubt but that Revenue will, in due course, undertake an appropriate employer compliance campaign relating to employer eligibility under the EWSS.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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331. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of companies on the list of companies published in receipt of the temporary wage subsidy scheme; the number of employees who while in receipt of the subsidy had their incomes topped up by the company concerned; and the amounts of these top-ups as a percentage of the employees normal weekly income. [35434/20]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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333. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason numerous nursing homes have availed of the wage subsidy scheme for employees; the number of employees in the sector who were placed on the scheme; if these employees worked throughout the period in question; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35436/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 331 and 333 together.

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) was administered by Revenue, on behalf of the Government, from 26 March 2020 to 31 August 2020. Over 66,500 employers received subsidy payments totalling €2.9 billion in respect of approximately 664,000 employees through the scheme.

Revenue has prepared a detailed statistical report on the TWSS, which is published at . This includes, in Table 9, the available information on additional (top up) payments made to employees by their employers.

In accordance with legislative requirements set out in section 28(8) of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020, Revenue has published the names and addresses of employers who received TWSS payments. The list, which includes a number of nursing homes, is available at for the Deputy’s information.

Approximately 60 employers that classified as nursing homes employed 3,100 staff that received TWSS payments over the course of the scheme. In keeping with Revenue’s confidentiality obligations under Section 851A of the Taxes Consolidation Act, it is not possible to comment on the specific cases. However, Revenue has confirmed to me that there was no restriction on nursing homes availing of the TWSS, assuming they met the criteria of the scheme in the same manner as any other employer from any sector.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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332. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to seek the reimbursement of the amounts of wage subsidies given to companies in cases in which these companies return to profit by the end of 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35435/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) expired on 31 August 2020 and was replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) from 1 September.

The objective of both schemes is to support firm viability and preserve the relationship between the employer and employee insofar as possible. This has been achieved by subsidising a portion of the employer wage bill in circumstances where the employer’s business has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions.

Employer eligibility has been determined by reference to change in turnover, a deliberate design feature that has allowed the schemes to be open to all sectors and applied economy wide, while at the same time remain targeted at employers who are considered to be most in need of support.

The primary qualifying criteria for the EWSS is the “turnover test” and has been specifically designed to target the subsidy at otherwise viable employers whose businesses continue to be adversely impacted by COVID-19 by requiring a comparison of the firm’s pre-pandemic operations with their current operations. The legislation provides that the employer must be able to demonstrate that they are operating at no more than 70% in either the turnover of the employer’s business or the customer orders received by the employer by reference to the period from July to December 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. The employer must have a tax clearance certificate to be eligible to join the EWSS and must continue to meet the requirements for tax clearance throughout the scheme.

To address concerns around the targeting of the measure, the legislation already provides that certain elements, such as the turnover test threshold, may be revised in the event that the on-going monitoring of the scheme and the economic recovery presents the opportunity to make changes that minimise deadweight while also fulfilling the objective of supporting employment as well as enabling employers scale back up their business.

There are no plans to introduce a provision to claw back or to seek the reimbursement of the amounts of wage subsidies paid to those eligible companies in the event that such firms are in a profit making position by the end of 2020.