The cut-off date for new entrants to pandemic business supports may be extended if more sectoral closures are forced due to the worsening disease in the country, The Irish Times has learned.
A high-powered Government committee met on Monday evening and, while no options were signed off, it’s understood that allowing new entrants into the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme is under consideration. However, with no decisions forthcoming on Monday evening over precisely what form supports might take, it was also unclear whether Government plans for a subsidised antigen test regime would be signed off by the Coalition on Tuesday.
Draft plans for a long-awaited scheme to subsidise antigen tests were drawn up on Monday and were due go to Cabinet. It’s understood that the initial proposal envisaged rolling out the programme through pharmacies first, before other retailers, with a discount of around €4 per test across the board, but this was still under discussion late in the evening with no agreement reached.