Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

I thank the Chair for her welcome. I am pleased to be here before the committee this morning. The Chair has introduced my team and her thank her for that.

As members know 2020 was a year like no other and Covid-19 had an immediate impact on the Department, on the economy and on our citizens, while dealing with Brexit at the same time. Our budget, as the Comptroller and Auditor General pointed out, increased hugely to €1.95 billion which was double our allocation of €977 million in 2019. This allowed us to roll out significant and targeted supports for enterprise, including the restart and the restart plus grants, the sustaining enterprise fund, the Covid products scheme and the Covid credit guarantee scheme. It also allowed us to significantly expand other supports such as the working capital and future growth loan schemes and the Microfinance Ireland Covid loans scheme. In addition we responded with a large number of non-fiscal measures in areas of company regulation, health and safety, workplace relations as well as new advisory supports. One of the most significant measures was the restart grant scheme. As the Comptroller and Auditor General pointed out in his report, grants to the value of €640 million were paid to enterprises of which €633 million was paid out by ourselves and €7 million by Fáilte Ireland. The local authorities were used to specifically and quickly get that money out to businesses and we provided those businesses impacted by the pandemic with modest amounts of cash. The aim was to meet the additional costs that all firms incurred due to Covid-19 and to preserve, in particular, economic activity in our country. It was delivered in conjunction with other Government supports such as the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment payment.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report makes two specific recommendations on auditing and evaluation. The Department accepts both recommendations and is committed to implementing them. I should emphasise that any consideration of the oversight of the restart schemes must have due regard to the circumstances in which those schemes were designed and launched, and in particular the need to have them available as urgently as possible. I am very pleased that those schemes, after a Government decision in early May, relaunched on 22 May, which took huge effort by the officials of the Department, and others.

Apart from the restart schemes, we also rolled out other measures. Some €98 million was allocated for the sustaining enterprise fund, which assisted 340 businesses to stay in business and contribute to the recovery of our economy. The online retail scheme was hugely successful. The business planning voucher, the enterprise centres and the Brexit ready for customs grant were all very important.

Enterprise Ireland had an overall net loss of 872 jobs but created 16,500 new jobs, with 65% of those jobs based regionally. IDA Ireland also got specific grant aid for Covid. That scheme has considerable potential for us into the future. Notwithstanding the pandemic, IDA Ireland continues to win new investments, with 246 new investments secured last year and 20,000 new jobs. I am pleased that half of those went to regional locations, which is one of our policy aims.

The local enterprise offices were very important. We increased their funding by 170% last year. The business continuity voucher scheme supported more than 12,000 businesses at a cost of €20 million. The trading online voucher scheme would, in the recent past, have involved 1,000 vouchers annually. Last year, vouchers were sent to 13,000 recipients to allow companies to go online. That was hugely successful for small businesses. I am delighted to report that employment in that regard totalled 35,000 at local level.

We also responded significantly in terms of liquidity to business, which was a considerable factor, particularly at the time when banks were not lending. We provided almost €50 million for the Covid and Brexit working capital loan schemes and the future growth loan scheme. Those schemes included 3,000 loans to businesses, worth €548 million.

Probably the most significant was the Covid credit guarantee scheme. In the first four months it was open, 1,890 loans were given out to a value of €98 million. The scheme has continued to grow strongly. We are now at almost 8,000 loans with a value of just over €550 million.

Microfinance Ireland was key. It was the first agency to market with a Covid loan fund in March 2020 and 1,300 firms availed of it. That involved a six-month interest and repayment holiday, as well as reduced interest. It supported 3,000 jobs.

We also looked to innovation. I will later touch on the disruptive technology fund, which funded 43 innovative projects. We see that as the future for Ireland.

Apart from direct financial supports, we established a call centre and provided guides for business and a whole range of communications material. Legislation was to the fore. We changed company law and employment rights. We recently introduced a new examinership-lite process, the small company administrative rescue process, SCARP, to assist our small and micro companies.

The Health and Safety Authority is important. It is at the forefront of workplace safety. It developed the Return to Work Safely Protocol and has revised it several times since. We are working on it now. It also took on a new role as the lead agency in co-ordinating compliance right across Government. All of our agencies and bodies, including the National Standards Authority of Ireland, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Workplace Relations Commission, the Companies Registration Office and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement played vital roles. They adapted their services. They were agile and flexible. They responded, postponed regulatory requirements and provided advice.

While the challenges of Covid remain, the reopening of our economy and the return to the workplace has allowed our businesses to get back trading and to remain in business. Unemployment has fallen from a high of 31.5% in April 2020 to 7.9%. We are not where we were before the pandemic but we certainly feel that our supports have been key to achieving this progress.

I note that, with the exception of €6 million provided to the Department at the end of 2020, all of the additional funding was expended solely on business supports. There were no additional administrative or staffing resources incurred in the Department. These schemes were developed and delivered under enormous pressure by staff in the Department with our offices and agencies. The combined efforts were such that we were able to deliver in a timely and efficient manner. I must put on my record my thanks for the commitment and dedication of those teams. I am happy to take any questions from the committee.