Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct. Rural businesses need to do that, especially now with their doors closed. To apply, they need to go to their local enterprise office, LEO, where they can get a trading online voucher. Around this time last year, when I was the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, my then Department strongly promoted that scheme. People from many businesses have told me that if they had not gone online, their doors would have closed. The new digital economy is the new way of doing business and the new way we live, so I encourage businesses to get online.

Yesterday evening, I visited a distribution depot in Cavan, which is newly built because the old DPD depot was not big enough. The company had to move to bigger premises because of the huge volume of business going online and being delivered by courier. It is important that businesses get online and the best and first port of call for doing that is the local enterprise office.

The Senator is also correct about the help-to-buy scheme. As Deputy Naughten said, the amount available is approximately €30,700. It is the tax incentive available to people building or buying a new house. We must bridge the gap and support people to move into derelict buildings in town centres and convert them into modern living spaces. I am working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and we will, through the town centre first task force, examine what is the best way forward in that regard. We must consider any proposals that come in. I will feed into the town centre first committee that this issue came up at the committee.