Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy, especially for his positive remarks on the assistance that the Government and the Department provided to his constituents in Midleton, and to SMEs throughout the country, this year.

I thank him for his leadership and vision on the shared island enterprise scheme. It is working very well. I am very glad we are seeking additional funding for it. It is very interesting that a huge proportion of that additional funding is to help fund female entrepreneurs, which is very positive.

As I said, today is National Women's Enterprise Day. I was at an event in Fingal earlier this morning. It was fantastic to meet so many inspirational female entrepreneurs and businesspeople who are doing incredible work around the country and are also powering the economy, because many of them are creating jobs.

Regarding the credit guarantee scheme, we can go back to the deferral rate but to date, the annual rate of claims on defaulted loans has been running at approximately 2% of the drawdown under the scheme, so loans must be in default for 90 days before a lender can submit a claim for a payment under the guarantee. This time period provides a window in which a defaulted loan may come back into payment and not result in a claim. The low level of claims shows that businesses up to this point have been able to meet their repayment obligations but there is always a possibility that claim levels could increase from their current level in the coming years. We are, however, on a good trajectory.

Regarding the humanitarian flood programme, €10 million will have been provided to businesses in County Cork, between Midleton and Bantry, by the end of this year. We are happy to have done this and to be in a position to be able to provide that support to businesses we know so desperately need it. I thank the Irish Red Cross for administering the scheme so well.

The Deputy spoke about two specific issues. He referred to them as anomalies within the scheme, relating to those who were insured but were not able to claim the full cost of the damage done, and those who were operating on a temporary basis from an unrateable business. The temporary basis from an unrateable business might be difficult for us to account for but we can definitely look at that and see how it would work. Ultimately, this scheme was designed not just for those who did not have insurance but for those who could not get insurance and were deemed uninsurable. The Deputy is right that there is a cohort who are probably at a disadvantage, having paid insurance, so that is something we can look at. I am happy to take any suggestions he may have on this by email because I am conscious that we now have a second scheme in operation in Bantry.

Regarding the power-up grant, we are trying to make it as easy as possible for businesses to engage with this. ICOB 2, as we call it, the specific double payment for retailers and those working in the hospitality industry, happened really quickly, without the need for anybody to do anything. We want to get to a point of administering grants that easily. To do this one, we just have to confirm that all those companies are still in operation. Local authorities will send emails to all the businesses which received ICOB 2 in their area and ask them to tick a box to indicate they are still in operation and are up to date in their tax affairs. The money will then be administered in the same way through the local authorities, with €4,000 between now and the end of the year. I thank my officials, who have engaged with the Local Government Management Agency on this. We set a tough timeline. We wanted to make sure this money got into the accounts of businesses between now and the end of the year. We appreciate that doing that places a big administrative burden on local authorities. Our Department is paying them for that service but ultimately it was a big ask of them. I put on record my gratitude to the LGMA and the directors of finance and their teams across local authorities, who are administering that for us. As I mentioned to Deputy O'Reilly, we are also making provision for companies which were not rateable last year but which are rateable this year, with rates bills of under €30,000, to draw that down.

Regarding the visas and the intra-company spousal arrangements, I thank the Deputy for all the work he has done on this. I know he has done an awful lot. This has been in operation since May. It is a little too early to tell the Deputy definitively how we think it is going but we are monitoring it. We agreed to begin the roll-out of a single permit to both work and live in Ireland. The intra-company spousal permit is in operation. We are monitoring it. We cannot necessarily say to the Deputy at this stage whether it is working as designed because it is really in its infancy at this point.

On the Deputy's other economic immigration question, in May, the Government agreed to begin the roll-out of a single permit to both work and live in Ireland. At the moment, people have to apply to my Department for a work permit and then go to the Department of Justice to apply for a visa. I know this is creating many delays and frustration on the part of applicants and businesses. It is also costing time. By introducing a single permission, we can reduce the costs and complexity for both employers and the applicants of having to separately obtain employment and residency visas. We began to roll that out in May.