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Small and Medium Enterprises Supports

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2018

Tuesday, 6 November 2018

Questions (201, 202, 203)

Michael McGrath

Question:

201. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance his plans in place or the actions he has taken to help support SMEs to embrace card acceptance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45406/18]

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Michael McGrath

Question:

202. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the amount invested to date in promoting digital payment options amongst SMEs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45407/18]

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Michael McGrath

Question:

203. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the steps he has taken to incentivise merchants to accept card payment; the further plans that have been drafted for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45408/18]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 201 to 203, inclusive, together.

In order to make card acceptance more attractive for retailers, interchange rates were reduced in December 2015. An EU regulation reduced the interchange fee charged to retailers to 30 basis points for credit cards, and Ireland reduced the corresponding fee for domestic consumer debit cards to 10 basis points, giving us one of the lowest rates of interchange fees on debit cards in the EU. Just before that, on 31 October 2015, the transaction limit on contactless payment cards was raised from €15 to €30.

To support these EU and industry changes, Budget 2016 abolished stamp duty charges on debit and cash machine cards. These were replaced with a 12c per transaction charge for withdrawing cash from an ATM, though with a cap set at an annual maximum charge of €2.50 or €5 depending on card type.

The changes made at that time reduced the costs to merchants of accepting card payments and made card usage more attractive, as evidenced by the strong growth in electronic payments generally and debit cards in particular. The latest Central Bank credit and debit card statistical release shows that there were 74 million debit card point-of-sale transactions in September 2018, up 75% on September 2015.

Almost one in three card payments are now contactless, and figures released last week by the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland show that the quarterly value of contactless card payments exceeded €1 billion for the first time in the second quarter of 2018. The statistics show that consumers are using their cards, and that merchants are accepting card payments to a greater extent than ever.

The Deputy may be aware that my colleague, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, last month launched a €625,000 pilot scheme for eligible SMEs in the retail sector. The new scheme, to be delivered by Enterprise Ireland, supports retailers to strengthen their online trading capabilities in order to compete internationally, and grants of between €10,000 to €25,000 are available on a matched funding basis to enhance digital capability.

In addition, the Department of the Taoiseach has launched a public consultation on a new National Digital Strategy for Ireland, which aims to map out how we can positively embrace digital advances. The public consultation aims to give the public and interested stakeholders a chance to tell Government what priorities should be addressed in the Strategy, including what supports are needed by businesses to benefit fully from the use of digital technology. That consultation is available on the website of the Department of the Taoiseach until 23 November.

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