Danny Healy-Rae Challenges Wage Subsidy Assessment Period

Danny Healy-Rae questioned the Minister about the reference period used to assess employers' eligibility for the wage subsidy scheme. He argued the qualifying assessment should cover the lockdown period up to when hotels reopened rather than beginning from when hotels reopened a couple of weeks ago.

Question on qualifying period

Danny Healy-Rae asked whether it would be more appropriate to use the period of the lockdown as the timeframe for assessing employers' qualification for the wage subsidy scheme.

Proposed alternative timeframe

He said the assessment period should run from whenever the lockdown began until hotels got back to working again, instead of the period starting when hotels reopened a couple of weeks ago.

Appeal to the Minister

He urged the Minister to reconsider the choice of reference period, saying the current approach "doesn't make an offer" and asking the Minister to have "a relook at that."

Impact on employers and hotels

The intervention focused on how the qualifying period affects employers, particularly in the hotel sector, and whether assessing from the reopening date for the rest of the year is an appropriate measure.