DIRECTORS ‘BREATHE AGAIN’ AS STATE ENDS SLY CUT TO SUBSIDIES
SMALL businesses gave a sigh of relief last night, after a ‘stealth’ move to cut the Wage Subsidy Scheme for directors was scrapped.
A café owner in Cork, who had accused the State of ‘pulling the plug’ on his business, said thousands of owners and workers could now ‘breathe again’.
Richard Jacob’s open letter to the Government prompted huge support yesterday from other directors of small businesses who said the move to change supports available from September would lead them to ruin.
Small print in the bill to replace the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme with the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme had stated that proprietary directors who are also employees in their business would get no support.
Mr Jacob, who runs the Idaho Café on Caroline Street in Cork city, said he and his wife Mairéad closed their business on March 14, and then remained closed by order of the Government until July. They reopened under public health guidelines, seating 12 people rather than the previous 32. Turnover is now down 40%.
‘The Government are now saying, that having closed our business, shackled our business and nearly put us out of business, they are now pulling the plug on our business,’ he said.
‘Mairéad and I are directors, we still make the coffee and cook the food, but because we own our business, the Government are saying that they will not subsidise our wages.’
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe last night confirmed he had asked the Revenue Commissioners to reinstate proprietary directors to the new subsidy scheme from September 1, as long as they retained employees on their payroll.
Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, thanked the Minister for listening to the voices of small business owners.
He had said earlier in the day that Mr Jacob’s letter had been 100% correct.
‘It is a sneaky, stealth way to target vulnerable business owners, the majority of whom are running small businesses, small SMEs, in hospitality and retail,’ he said.
Sven Spollen-Behrens, director of the Small Firms Association, said the policy change as it previously represented ‘discrimination against entrepreneurs’.