Just €33.7m in Covid supports repaid by firms that paid dividends

Employers in receipt of Government Covid-19 wage supports who also paid out dividends last year have returned "only a paltry amount" of the subsidies to the State, says Labour finance spokesman, Ged Nash.

New figures confirm that 19 employers who paid out dividends last year also repaid in full Covid-19 wage subsidies they had received, totalling €27.9 million.

The figures provided by Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, also show that a further 84 employers, who paid out dividends, partially repaid Employee Wage Support Scheme (EWSS) payments of €5.8 million, bringing the total refunded to €33.7 million.

In a written Dáil reply to Deputy Nash, Minister Donohoe said the 103 employers were among a group of 641 companies who received EWSS support of €267.8 million and made some form of dividend payment in 2021.

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Mr Donohoe said he had been advised by Revenue that it was not possible to determine whether dividend payments relate to profit reserves earned before or during the pandemic.

He noted that the 641 employers who paid some form of dividend were among 51,900 employers who received EWSS payments.

Deputy Nash said the returned Covid-19 support payments represented “ only a paltry amount of money returned by a very small number of companies that have benefited from the EWSS”.

He said the fact that companies could pay out dividends suggested they did not require support through the Covid-19 wage subsidies.

“When I first raised these issues towards the end of last year, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste were reduced by making empty appeals to businesses who were paying out dividends to return Covid-19 monies to the State, and that has not happened to any great degree. Only a small number of companies have done that,” he said.

“In truth, there should have been strict conditions attached to accessing the wage subsidy schemes from the get-go.

The Minister said “the majority of companies that have participated in the wage subsidy schemes did so because they had a reasonable expectation that their business would suffer a decline in turnover or customer orders as a result of the effect of the pandemic”.

“Without the support of EWSS, many businesses may not be in existence today or may not have been in a position to adapt as responsively as they have to the reopening of all sectors of our economy. I am satisfied that the EWSS has operated as a very effective and responsive instrument to aid economic recovery during these unprecedented times.”