In mid-March, as the scale of the crisis was becoming manifest, Niall Cody placed a call with the Department of Finance. The government had implemented a rapid-fire Covid unemployment benefit, administered by the Department of Social Protection, but it was becoming obvious that something greater was required to help keep people in jobs.  As chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, it is Cody’s job to collect taxes. But he also knew that the real-time reporting tools his organisation had developed could be used to pay money out. So, he rang the Department of Finance and offered to help. Within days, the…

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