I understand the significant impact that the necessary move to return to full scale Level 5 of the Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19, will have for businesses. The decision to move to full scale Level 5 was not taken lightly and all factors were considered. The restrictions are in place for a period of at least one month from 31 December 2020.
My Department has worked to ensure that appropriate supports are in place for businesses that require finance as they respond to impacts arising from COVID-19. The uptake of these supports has been robust and indicates that businesses are taking action in response to this period of disruption.
Budget 2021 provided a significant package of tax and expenditure measures to build the resilience of the economy and to help vulnerable but viable businesses across all sectors. The measures in the Budget are in addition to those announced in the July Stimulus, including the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme, cash for businesses, low cost loans, commercial rates waivers and deferred tax liabilities. Details of the wide range of COVID-19 schemes are available on my Department’s website at https://dbei.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Supports-for-SMEs/COVID-19-supports/.
As part of Budget 2021, the COVID Restrictions Support Scheme, operational through Revenue, offers a targeted, timely and temporary sector-specific support to businesses forced to close or trade at significantly reduced levels due to COVID of up to €5,000 per week.
As a result of the fact that businesses have to close, we have made changes to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the EWSS. These changes increase in the top rate to €350 for those who were earning in excess of €400 per week.
Any self-employed person who cannot work in the short term because they are ill due to COVID-19 can avail of the COVID-19 Enhanced Illness Benefit payment of €350 per week, further information on this scheme can be found on the Department of Social Protection website at https://services.mywelfare.ie/en/topics/covid-19-payments/illness-benefit/
To ensure that all self-employed taxpayers can benefit from the losses provision introduced in the July Stimulus, we are also providing that debt warehousing provisions be extended to include the 2019 balance and 2020 preliminary tax to allow such taxpayers to defer payment for a period of a year with no interest applying.
The Minister for Finance is also delivering on the Programme for Government commitment to equalise the Earned Income Credit with the PAYE credit by raising it by €150 to €1,650.
We are providing more and cheaper loan finance through MicroFinance Ireland, SBCI and the new €2bn Credit Guarantee Scheme. I announced the reopening of MFI lending on 31st August and I launched the €2bn Credit Guarantee Scheme on 7th September.
We have also announced a six-month reduction in the VAT, going down to 21% and 9% respectively, together with a range of additional public capital investment measures to support the domestic economy.
These supports are supplementary to the wide range of existing loan and voucher schemes available to assist businesses affected by COVID-19 provided through the July Jobs Stimulus and other Government initiatives. In relation to the matter of cover for perishable stock this would be a matter for the business to raise directly with their insurance provider.
