Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

65. To ask the Minister for Finance the totality of the funds requested and drawn down by his Department from EU sources in respect of covid-19 in each of the years 2020 to 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form (details). [30222/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Following a loan request by the then Minister for Finance on behalf of the Government, Ireland received a total of €2.492 billion on 30 March 2021 under the SURE EU programme.

SURE, which stands for Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency, was a specific financial instrument created by the European Union to protect jobs and workers’ incomes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The European Commission provided low cost loans to nineteen Member States to support sudden increases in public expenditure for the preservation of employment, thereby protecting citizens and mitigating the severely negative socio-economic consequences of the Covid pandemic.

The amount of the Irish application was based on costs already expended by the Government as part of the Covid-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which satisfied the conditions for the SURE programme.

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme provided wage bill subsidies to support firm viability and preserve relationships between employers and employees. When the scheme ended in August 2020, nearly 70,000 employers and over 600,000 employees had been supported.

As the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) has already ended by the time of disbursement of the SURE loan to Ireland, Ireland did not have any ongoing reporting requirement to the European Commission on the implementation of this planned public expenditure.

Ireland was able to recoup the substantial majority of the expenditure already accrued under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) from the SURE programme. The cumulative value of payments made to employers under the TWESS was €2.693 billion, and the total cash paid in to the Irish Exchequer in 2021 from the SURE is €2. 492 billion.

SURE provided Ireland with a diversified source of funding with the benefits of the EU’s strong Triple A credit rating (AAA) and low borrowing costs. As of October 2023, Ireland's SURE lending has a weighted average life of 12.1 years and a European Commission fixed interest rate of 0.22%.

Table 1 - Department of Finance - Covid-19 Related EU Funds received