Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Any business that paid less than €10,000 in rates, which is a very large number of businesses, will get 50% of what it paid in rates last year as a grant in recognition for the cost of doing business. On the split of those 140,000 businesses or so that are paying less than €10,000 versus the others that are paying between €10,000 and €30,000, every business itself will know what it paid in rates last year and, as I said, there is clarity about what they will get back as long as they qualify.

On the timeline around it, we are working with local authorities, local authority managers, the CCMA, and other representative bodies to make sure this money gets out as soon as it possibly can. We spoke to them after the budget decision and the indication was they would not be able to get the payments out before the end of the year but that they would certainly do everything they could to get the payments out in the first quarter of 2024. That is what we are working towards now. My understanding is we are likely to see letters coming out from local authorities by the middle of February. This is a busy time for local authorities, by the way.