Michael Cahill
Question:357. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the Power Up grant can be paid to a business (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7347/25]
View answerTuesday, 25 February 2025
Questions (357, 358, 377)
Michael Cahill
Question:358. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the Power Up grant can be paid in respect of retail dry cleaners (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7348/25]
View answerMichael Cahill
Question:377. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will urgently rectify the current situation whereby dry cleaners are not considered as retail for the increased cost of business scheme and Power Up grant (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8072/25]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 357, 358 and 377 together.
In order to get payments to businesses before the end of 2024, the Power Up grant was aligned with the ICOB scheme and a business must have received the second ICOB grant and be in the hospitality, retail and beauty sectors in order to receive the Power Up grant. If a business was not in those sectors they were not eligible for the Power Up grant.
The reason for payments to those specific sectors is due to the greater impact that increased costs are having on the hospitality and retail and beauty sectors (As noted in the DETE-DSP joint working paper titled “An assessment of the cumulative impact of proposed measures to improve working conditions in Ireland”).
The Department used NACE codes to determine eligibility for those sectors. The NACE Coder is a European classification system that assigns organisations according to their business activities. Dry Cleaning businesses are not eligible for the second payment and the Power Up grant as their primary business is not in the retail or hospitality or beauty sector, as per the NACE Codes used to define business categories.
Question No. 358 answered with Question No. 357.