The Taoiseach will be aware that, during the Covid-19 period, certain businesses were allowed to defer payment of certain tax liabilities for a certain period, which has now expired. The period was set before the Ukrainian war, which could not have been anticipated but which has caused a raft of difficulties for those businesses. Will the Government revisit the question of warehousing tax for those businesses? The Government has been forced to step in to assist them again in the budget and it seems contradictory to assist them on one hand, while on the other letting the Revenue Commissioners put them out of business.

The debt warehousing scheme was very effective during Covid-19. About €2.9 billion of debt was warehoused during that period, as of the end of April 2022. Over 90,000 businesses availed of debt warehousing. However, it has not been considered yet in the context of the current energy crisis. There is a State aid temporary crisis framework put forward by the European Union that we have to be in line with. That is under review within Europe and we are also keeping our business reports under review, including on the issue of tax warehousing, but we have not made a decision on it. We are endeavouring to assess what the impact of measures will be on the viability of businesses. We want to protect jobs. That is the bottom line.