Minister Donohoe publishes assessments of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

Published On - June 17, 2019

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The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, has today (Wednesday) published the assessments he has received to date on matters relevant to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), in compliance with the legislative obligation to monitor the scheme as set out in Section 28B of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020.

The EWSS is a central element of the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic supporting businesses, encouraging employment and helping to maintain the link between employers and employees. To date, payments of over €2.3 billion and PRSI credit of over €400 million have been granted to over 48,000 employers in respect of over 541,000 workers.

These papers analyse the data relating to the uptake of the scheme, noting that the coverage of the EWSS remains significant with over a quarter of all employers making a claim in January in relation to 15% of all employees in that month.

The objective of the EWSS is to support viable firms and encourage employment, so the papers also consider how the EWSS acts as an important bridge between social welfare payments like the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and regular employment which is the ultimate goal.