Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This Government has supported businesses right the way through the Covid pandemic. Most businesses and sectors will respect what we have done there. We work together to protect businesses. I am aware of increased costs on businesses due to inflation in the cost of wages, materials and so on, as are we all. The Government is bringing forward and has signed off on a package of €257 million through the increased cost of business grant. That will be a vital measure to support those small and medium businesses. I know the Deputy has raised this issue directly with the Minister. That grant will be paid at a rate of half of an enterprise's commercial rates bill for 2023 for firms paying up to €10,000 in rates. It is a flat €5,000 grant. Our analysis suggests that approximately 143,000 businesses will benefit from that. The Deputy may have seen the Minister for Finance, Deputy McGrath's remarks on the warehousing arrangements for tax debt. He has committed to looking at those again. We want to support the indigenous SME sector and we have done so. The Minister for Finance has committed to looking at the issue to see what we can do to help on the tax side. We expect the increased cost of business grant to be paid out by the end of the second quarter of this year.

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