Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020
81. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to provide funding to Irish businesses in the water industry struggling due to the delay and postponement of Irish Water projects (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21424/20]
View answerOn Thursday 23 July we announced the July Stimulus Package, a substantial financial package to stimulate our economy worth more than €5 billion, with an additional €2 billion in loan guarantees.
The July Stimulus is bigger in scale than most budgets and is being deployed at speed.
The July Stimulus package is designed to help businesses to open, to help those that are already open to stay open, to get staff back to work and for those who cannot go back to their old jobs, there are new opportunities.
We are providing more and cheaper loan finance through MicroFinance Ireland, SBCI and the new €2bn Credit Guarantee Scheme.
I launched the new Credit Guarantee Scheme on Monday of this week, which is part of the Government’s suite of supports for businesses that have been negatively impacted as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ireland, the COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme will facilitate up to €2 billion in lending to eligible businesses.
The Scheme offers a partial Government guarantee (80%) to participating finance providers against losses on qualifying finance agreements to eligible SMEs, small Mid-Caps and primary producers.
It is designed to incentivise participating finance providers to continue to play their role in supporting the availability of additional liquidity to Irish businesses.
Loans under the Scheme range from €10,000 to €1 million, for terms of up to five-and-a-half years. Financing will be offered through a range of products, including term loans, working capital loans and overdrafts. Loans of up to €250,000 under the Scheme are available unsecured (except where this is a requirement of the product feature, as in the case of asset finance, invoice discount facilities, etc).
The range of measures in place to assist businesses also include direct grants. To support viable businesses and jobs, including new hires, we have extended the wage subsidy scheme, which will run until the end of March 2021 and will be open to firms that do not currently participate and open to workers like seasonal workers who were not previously included. We are giving companies extra assistance through an enhanced Restart Plus grant of up to €25,000. From 1st September, the six-month reduction in the VAT came into effect, going down from 23% to 21%.
The issues in relation to roll-out of water investment projects are a matter for my colleague Minister Darragh O'Brien T.D., Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
