Mr. Declan Hughes:

I welcome the opportunity to appear before the committee this morning to help with its discussions on the impact of Covid-19 and incentives for business. As we have discussed previously with the committee, the pandemic has represented a dramatic and unprecedented social and economic shock for Ireland and has required an immediate and swift response to help impacted businesses and workers. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has played, and continues to play, an integral role in the whole-of-government response to these generational challenges.

I will talk about Covid-19 specifically first. The financial assistance provided to businesses and workers affected by the pandemic through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and other Departments is unprecedented, as the committee is aware. We have worked closely with business representatives and worker stakeholders throughout the course of the pandemic to ensure that we have had the right range of advisory and funding initiatives at the right time and that these have been targeted and impactful.

We continue to see strong take-up of the range of Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment-backed schemes available to businesses through the Department, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, Microfinance Ireland, the credit guarantee scheme and our various agencies. Many of these were approved as part of the EU temporary aid framework for Covid, which we worked on with the Commission in the early part of last year. We expect that temporary aid framework to be extended into next year. We stand ready to extend the various schemes should that be confirmed by the Commission.

I will recall some of the measures that have been introduced. Mr. McDonnell of ISME has referred to some of them. Some €633 million was administered for us by the local authorities. This was in the form of restart grants to almost 109,000 applicants and was a significant fillip to businesses last year. There was €200 million in grants and loans under an Enterprise Ireland-Industrial Development Authority strategic enterprise fund. This is helping 1,600 businesses that are significant employers providing somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs right across the country. These businesses will also have received supports. Some €20 million has been allocated to 5,500 businesses under the small business assistance scheme for Covid. As Mr. McDonnell mentioned, more than €550 million has so far been sanctioned and drawn down by 8,000 businesses under the Government’s credit guarantee scheme. As I mentioned, we envisage this being extended into next year should we get approval from the Commission. Under the future growth loan scheme, €733 million has been allocated so far. This is long-term low-cost funding for businesses. Microfinance Ireland continues to work with businesses that cannot get access to finance from the banks. It has approved almost €34 million for 1,500 businesses.

In addition, the local enterprise offices were very quick off the mark, as members will recall, in working with businesses right across the country. They have awarded over 17,000 trading online vouchers to a value of nearly €40 million to businesses to help them to pivot, to change their business models and to respond. They have also provided €25 million in business continuity vouchers. These are vouchers worth €2,500 to €5,000 to help businesses to reposition themselves. They have been very successful. In addition, we have worked with a range of businesses in the sectors that were specifically impacted, such as the retail sector. More than 500 online retail awards of up to €40,000 have been allocated to such businesses to help them to introduce new services and maintain employment, which is the key objective.

Throughout the pandemic, we have seen enterprise innovation right across the enterprise base in terms of changing business models and maintaining employment. I will highlight the Covid products scheme in particular. More than 15 projects were supported with funding to the value of €16.8 million to develop Covid-related products and services. An additional €100 million was allocated to the Department under budget 2022 for once-off funding for businesses impacted by Covid-19. This will maintain many of the schemes I have just mentioned.

For many businesses, budget 2022 provided clarity and certainty on the range of schemes and funding assistance which is to continue across government. It is worth recalling that, to date, over €17.5 billion has been provided to individuals and businesses through the PUP, the EWSS and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. I will recall some of those schemes, which were administered by other Departments and by Revenue.

The number of employees on the EWSS is steadily reducing as the economy reopens. This figure is down from 345,000 in June to 288,400 last month. Significant numbers of employees are still benefiting from the EWSS as businesses return to full capacity and as markets recover. Over 40% of those on the EWSS are in the accommodation and food services sectors while some 9% are in wholesale and retail - a sector we work very closely with - and 6% are in transport.

CRSS, which was the successor to the restart scheme we initiated last year, has benefited more than 25,500 business premises with funding to the value of €700 million. The latest figures from Revenue indicate that approximately 110 businesses remain on that scheme.

The business resumption support scheme, BRSS, was launched in September. To date, over 1,400 businesses have been approved for the scheme through Revenue with approved funding totalling €5.2 million. Approximately one third of these beneficiaries are wet pubs while another 26% are bars, restaurants and hotels. Over 55% of BRSS applicants to date have been businesses in the accommodation and pubs sector. That scheme is open for new applicants until the end of the year.

I will also mention the debt warehousing facilities Revenue has made available. Over 98,000 businesses have benefited from this facility. While the number of PUP claimants continues to reduce, it is worth recalling that the self-employed still have the option to earn up to €960 over a period of eight weeks. The €1,000 enterprise support grant is also still available for businesses, even if they claimed it last year.

Mr. McDonnell mentioned the small companies administrative rescue process, SCARP. We are in the process of completing the preparatory work with a view to commencing the Act at the end of November. That is still very much on track, should it be needed in the first or second quarter of next year as some of these measures are unwound.

I will now cover some of the broader supports available and reiterate that we are dealing with a number of elements in respect of Covid and the challenges we face in terms of Brexit and in preparing for big future challenges.

The Department's budget for next year is €898 million, which is an increase of 13% or €103 million on our 2021 core allocation.

Brexit will remain a key focus over the coming weeks and months. As we discussed with the committee, we have just launched the Brexit impact loan scheme to a value of €330 million. We will have funding from that for next year. We will also be funding a €70 million capital investment scheme for the agricultural sector.

On digitalisation, climate and the circular economy, we will be launching a number of new schemes next year. We will have an extra €10 million for digital industries and €10 million for climate industries. That money will be rolled out. I am happy to talk about those transition schemes later in the meeting.

We have also increased the funding for the enterprise agencies, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. An additional €26.5 million will be available to the IDA and there will also be additional funding for Enterprise Ireland across a range of areas, including regional development. There will also be an additional €2 million for the local enterprise offices. Additional funding will be available for InterTradeIreland to support cross-Border trade and collaboration, in addition to significant additional funding for innovation. Committee members will be aware of the €90 million enterprise innovation fund, which we will be launching with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and the European Investment Fund in the early part of next year.

There is more detail in the Department's submissions to the committee, but that is a quick overview of how we will maintain the existing supports and measures in response to Covid-19 and how we will keep focus on the challenges of Brexit, digitalisation and climate. Remote working is also referred to in the paper. We are focused on building capacity around the country. Some of the fiscal measures in that regard are very supportive. We will continue to engage with stakeholders and the committee on ensuring we have the right measures available at the right time.