Following approval from Government on Friday 3 rd of December, the Department of
Finance worked with the Revenue Commissioners to further develop a proposal to
modify the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) to provide targeted support for
businesses which are subject to the latest public health restrictions. The objective of this
modified scheme was to provide targeted, timely and sector-specific support to
supplement the EWSS payments to affected businesses.
However, on further consideration and analysis of the available data, it proved to be
administratively very complex to design such a scheme and it would not be possible to
have it operational ahead of Christmas as had been intended.
Therefore it has now decided that maintaining the enhanced rates of subsidy under the
EWSS for a further two months is a relatively more efficient and effective way to support
affected businesses in the short term.
It has also been decided to extend the end-date of the CRSS to 31 January 2022 to
align with the requirement for nightclubs and discos to close until 9 January 2022 under
the Health Regulations.
A further amendment to the Finance Bill 2021 will be brought in the Seanad stage next
week to give effect to these changes.
