The final cost of the Government's Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme was almost €2.9 billion when it expired last Monday, according to the latest figures from the Revenue Commissioners who administered the scheme.
From Tuesday, the TWSS - which ran from March 26 to August 31 - was replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme. This will continue to provide payroll supports to employers until March 31 - though with different criteria.
During the five months of its existence, the TWSS delivered €2.844 billion in wage subsidies to employers, of which €108m was paid out in the last week.
Over 663,100 employees received at least one subsidy from the time the scheme was launched in March. An estimated 360,000 people are being directly supported