Peadar Tóibín
Question:175. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide extra supports to SMEs for whom Christmas normally represents their peak trade time. [43952/20]
View answerThursday, 17 December 2020
Questions (175)
Written answers
The pandemic has caused untold damage to people's lives and livelihoods. I know that many SMEs have been severely impacted by the restrictions needed to ensure public health safety during the pandemic.
The Government has provided a comprehensive range of enterprise measures to support businesses at this difficult time. These include the wage subsidy scheme, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities. A full list of supports are on the Department of Enterprise website.
The Employment Wage Support Scheme was announced as part of Budget 2021 and is an economy wide support that provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers. Changes have also been made to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the EWSS, increasing the top rate to €350 for those who were earning in excess of €400 per week.
The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys T.D., recently announced the doubling of the PUP threshold from the current €480 over four weeks to €960 over an eight-week period effective immediately. This will help people to restart their businesses and allow self-employed people to take on intermittent jobs without losing their entitlement.
The COVID Restrictions Support Scheme, operated by the Revenue Commission, was introduced in Budget 2021. It offers a targeted, timely and temporary sector-specific support to businesses forced to close or trade at significantly reduced levels due to COVID-19 of up to €5,000 per week.
I will continue to work with my colleagues to identify practical actions to help businesses build resilience and live with the virus over the coming year.