Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 July 2020
64. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation when the Covid-19 online retail scheme which offers grants to small businesses to help enhance their online sales capabilities will reopen. [17063/20]
View answerAs Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation I am acutely aware that COVID-19 has brought particular challenges for retailers - large and small, across the country. Trading online is a very important route for retail businesses to grow and improve their business in the current crisis and will be an important element in their recovery over the longer term.
The objective of the COVID-19 Online Retail Scheme - a competitive scheme, administered on my Department's behalf by Enterprise Ireland, is to support companies in the indigenous retail sector who have already started an online journey, to further enhance and strengthen their online presence, which will have the most immediate impact enabling them to respond to both domestic and international consumer demand with a competitive online offer.
My Department proposed this Scheme in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the urgent need for retail companies to achieve a step change in online capability. Applicant companies must be an indigenous retailer, employing 10 or more people, have an existing online presence (e.g. website or social media), and have a retail outlet through which they derive the majority of their revenue.
The Scheme was launched with an initial fund size of €2m. Due to significant levels of interest for the Scheme from eligible retailers and the particular challenges facing the retail sector during the pandemic, the funding available was increased. On the 2 July 2020, I was pleased to announce that 183 retailers have been approved for €6.5m in funding as part of the scheme. They will receive funding of between €10,000 and €40,000 and the average size of grants awarded under the first Call was €35,500. The grant is calculated at a maximum of 80% of company expenditure of up to €40,000 incurred by the successful applicants. The 183 retailers awarded funding operate across a broad spectrum of sectors and almost three quarters are located outside Dublin.
A further call under the Scheme will be issued by Enterprise Ireland over the coming weeks.
Further details on this Scheme are available at
www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/funding-supports/online-retail/online-retail-scheme/online-retail-scheme.html.
The Deputy may be aware that there has also been a major expansion of the Trading Online Voucher Scheme to help small and micro enterprises, with no more than 10 employees, including those in the retail sector, to get online quickly.
The Trading Online Voucher Scheme is being expanded by €14.2m after the Local Enterprise Offices received 3 years’ worth of applications in 3 months following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ireland. Following a previous expansion of the Scheme in early April, total additional funding for the Scheme is now almost €20m in 2020.
Under the Scheme, small businesses can claim up to €5,000 in two vouchers worth €2,500 each. The Scheme also facilitates subscriptions to low-cost online retailing platform solutions to quickly establish a retailing presence online.
I am committed to supporting the needs of the retail sector in developing their online capability and enhancing their competitiveness and will continue to review supports in this particular area, working with the industry through the Retail Forum.
