Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 July 2020
41. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the supports his Department will provide to outdoor active tourism businesses that are facing closure due to the restrictions of Covid-19 and high insurance costs with no access to credit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15764/20]
View answerMy Department and its agencies have worked with businesses across all sectors since the arrival of Covid 19 to help businesses overcome the challenge presented by the pandemic. The Government has put in place a comprehensive suite of supports for firms, which includes the wage subsidy scheme, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities.
These supports are designed to build confidence, to further assist businesses in terms of the management of their companies and to allow them to begin looking to the future and start charting a path forward for weeks and months ahead. For a full list of supports for business please see my Departments website on https://dbei.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Supports-for-SMEs/COVID-19-supports/.
My Department has put in place a number of loan schemes to provide access to funding to meet working capital and investment needs of microenterprises and SMEs to meet the strong demand for cash availability.
The full range of Local Enterprise Office advisory supports continue to be available to eligible firms to help with strategies to access finance, commence or ramp-up online trading activity, reconfigure business models, cut costs, innovate, diversify markets and supply chains and to improve competitiveness.
As stated in the Programme for Government, we will bring forward a July Stimulus to support our economy and help restore employment. Our focus is to support the viability of the business and enterprise sector and to get people back to work as quickly as possible in all sectors including the tourism sector. Helping our SMEs is central to this, given their pivotal role in the economy and employment. The July Stimulus will extend, enhance and add to the existing measures totalling €12bn in supports for Covid-19 impacted businesses already announced.
Currently, any business (Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited Company) with less than 10 full time employees and annual turnover of up to €2m may apply to Microfinance Ireland for funding from €5,000 – €50,000 where the business is not in a position to avail of finance from Banks and other commercial lending providers. The loan incurs 0% interest for the first six months and Zero repayments. Thereafter a reduced interest rate of 4.5% APR applies to loans applied for through the Local Enterprise Office.
The Restart Grant, for example, is just one part of a wider assistance package for business and for firms of all sizes. Businesses in this particular segment of the tourism sector are eligible to apply for the Restart grant if they operate from rateable premises; for example, an office location and rented storage space for equipment. Under the current rules of the scheme, if an entrepreneur operates such a service from their home, they are not eligible for the grant.
Regarding any further targeted measures specifically aimed at the tourism and hospitality sectors, in March 2020 a dedicated Tourism Recovery Taskforce was established made up of leaders from various sectors of the industry, who will work together to deal with the many challenges ahead. It has been specifically tasked with identifying measures required to enable Irish tourism to recover from the devastating effects of COVID19.
Local enterprise offices also offer a Trading Online Voucher Scheme, this scheme is funded by the Department of Communications Climate Action and Environment and delivered nationwide in partnership with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and the 31 Local Enterprise Offices. There has been a tremendous demand for the scheme from enterprises across the country since its expansion.
On the 8th of June the Government announced additional funding of €14.2m to continue the Scheme bringing the total funding allocation in 2020 to €19.8m. This additional funding will allow LEOs to approve additional vouchers to successful applicants. The Scheme offers skills training, mentoring and financial support of up to €2,500 to help small and micro-businesses to develop their ecommerce capability. New flexibilities to the Scheme were introduced in April including reducing the requirement for co-funding from 50% to 10% and allowing businesses to apply for a second voucher of up to €2,500 where they have successfully utilised their first one. As you may be aware the Schemes outlined above offer specific, experienced mentoring for their clients.
All LEOs also offer a number of ‘soft’ supports in the form of training or mentoring such as:
The Mentor Programme which is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owner/ managers who need practical and strategic one to one advice and guidance.
The LEO Management Development programmes which provide the owner-manager with the management, leadership, business skills and knowledge to achieve sustainability and growth in their business.
LEAN for Micro which is a targeted programme for Local Enterprise Office clients to help small businesses boost competitiveness, increase performance and profitability as well as building resilience within their companies.
Further to this, if a potential business is not eligible for direct grant aid, an entrepreneur with a viable business proposal can also use their LEO to make an application to MicroFinance Ireland, which offers support in the form of loans of up to €25,000 to start-ups with viable business propositions, that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by the banks. Successful applicants can avail of a more favourable interest rate from MFI of 6.8% if they make their application through the LEOs.
My former colleague, the then Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty announced on 25 June that the Department’s Enterprise Support Grant will be made available to assist self-employed recipients who are exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. The grant will be payable to self-employed micro enterprises which employ fewer than 10 people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 million and are not eligible for support from the COVID19 Business Restart Grant or other similar business reopening grants.
All COVID19 business Schemes are under constant review in terms of the evolving situation and will be adapted as circumstances dictate. In that regard, I can assure the Deputy that I will continue to work with my colleagues across Government and all stakeholders to examine further assistance to businesses impacted by Covid-19.
My former colleagues, the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross and the then Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin, recently established a special Tourism Recovery Taskforce with an Independent Chair, dedicated to spearheading economic recovery for the tourism sector and ancillary activities to prepare recommendations on how best the Irish tourism sector can adapt and recover and to identify priority aims, key enablers and market opportunities for the sector for the period 2020-2023.
