Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020
495. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection the average time from sole traders completing and submitting a form for the €1,000 grant to the local Intreo office to receipt of the funding. [28078/20]
View answerAs announced in the July Stimulus package, the enterprise support grant was extended to assist eligible self-employed, including sole traders, who exit the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment or jobseekers schemes after 18th May 2020 to re-start their business which was closed due to the impact of the pandemic. Funding of €12 million has been provided for this grant.
Since the launch of the grant in August, my Department has paid almost €2.9 million to over 3,100 small businesses who have reopened their business.
My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its applicants. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The national average time to approve a grant application is currently approximately two weeks.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
