Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Chapter 6 - Covid-19 Restart Grant Schemes

9:30 am

Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

I absolutely will. It arose as a result of many of the meetings we had with stakeholders at that time. Our advice to Government was that companies were really struggling. They were struggling to provide the type of Covid equipment that would allow them to remain open. They were struggling with their banks. They were struggling with their cash flow because many of them had closed due to Government restrictions. There was an immediate need to cover fixed costs and the cost of opening, reopening and adapting their businesses. One of the conditions we were very keen on and that was built into the scheme was that companies would maintain employment. That was an important factor. We did not want to wipe out a whole range of small companies. There are approximately 250,000 small companies in Ireland. Very many of those are sole traders so they did not come into that scheme. We were intent on trying to maintain employees in their jobs. Many of the sole traders qualified under other schemes.