1. The legislation underpinning the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (Scheme) provides that to be eligible to participate in the Scheme, an employer has “the firm intention of continuing to employ” the employee.

2. This would indicate that participation in the Scheme would exclude employers who have already made the decision to make certain identified employees redundant.

3. If, however an employer has not commenced the redundancy process, as given the current crisis, the consideration of lay off, short time, pay cuts and redundancies potentially affecting employees is a reality for many organisations. However, in some cases the process for redundancies and the identification of those at risk has not yet commenced.

4. Even if the identification of those at risk has commenced and letters have issued, the employer during this period is seeking to avoid redundancies and maintain as many employees by redeployment, consideration for alternative roles or otherwise. The view is that this is still reflecting that there is "a firm intention of continuing employment” and should not disentitle an employer from the Scheme

5. If employees have been selected and identified, there may be a risk to the employer that they are/were not eligible for participation in the Scheme and the language in the legislation would also indicate that the Scheme should not be used to subsidise a notice payment.

6. The Revenue Commissioners have set out a comprehensive document around guidance on eligibility and supporting proofs for the Scheme. https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/documents/guidance-on-employer-eligibility-and-supporting-proofs.pdf

The matter of eligibility is for an employer to satisfy themselves on by way of reference to this guidance document, through advice from the Revenue Commissioners or their supporting professional advisors. Member companies are referred especially to the following extracts from this guidance document;

• "The proofs mentioned below are intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive and Revenue is open to considering other relevant evidence that reasonably demonstrates eligibility for the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme"

• "Copies of notifications or communications to employees or Trade Unions or staff representative bodies of salary/wage cuts implemented as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic" as being supporting proofs for eligibility. "

• "Employers should retain their evidence/basis for entering the scheme. It will, of course, be very clear to us from our normal relationship with businesses and our normal interaction with businesses that there was no doubt about their qualification and most importantly it will be very clear that the businesses were so impacted."

• "Should Revenue seek to validate employer eligibility for the scheme, it will adopt a reasonable, fair and pragmatic approach in considering whether the criteria have
been met."