ISME, the body which represents small and medium businesses, has warned that any sudden move to halt the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme could trigger a massive wave of redundancies.
Their chief executive Neil McDonnell issued the warning as the Revenue Commissioners commenced a programme of compliance checks to ensure that employers are still eligible for the scheme, which has so far delivered government wage subsidies totalling almost €1.7bn to help companies hit by the Covid-19 emergency.
Revenue is warning employers that it may claw back the subsidy from those who did not have a reasonable basis for believing they qualified for the scheme.