Tanaiste Announces New Employment Subsidy Scheme

The Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) will provide a subsidy of €9,100 per employee over fifteen months to qualifying exporting enterprises in the manufacturing and internationally-traded services sectors.

Qualifying enterprises must be judged vulnerable in the current economic climate but viable in the medium to long term, with such analysis being co-ordinated by Enterprise Ireland.

The scheme is being introduced, in the context of rising unemployment, to assist in the retention of jobs and to help retain the economy's export potential.

Making the announcement, the Tánaiste said, "Not only will the scheme support the maintenance of vulnerable jobs, but it will help our economy retain its productive capacity and assist employers retain their labour, knowledge and skills-base, thereby supporting a faster return to sustainable growth."

The Tánaiste said that these challenging times demanded innovative responses from Government and that the new scheme was in addition to the €100 million Enterprise Stabilisation Fund put in place by the Government earlier this year. "In providing this support, the Government is optimistic that jobs will be saved and that vulnerable enterprises will benefit and will survive through the current challenging economic period.

"These firms will then be able to grow and develop and to provide essential jobs and investment in the recovery phase."

Over fifteen months, the Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) will provide a maximum subsidy of €200 per full-time employee per week for the first twenty-six weeks, reducing to €150, €100 and €50 respectively for each of the subsequent thirteen-week periods.

Under State Aid rules the maximum subsidy payable to any one enterprise, or group of related enterprises, for the duration of the scheme is €500,000.