Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. There are lots of things that businesses can do now, while they remain closed, to prepare to go back to work.

Any businesses on the wage subsidy scheme can bring in their staff and start to talk to them and look at how they can plan to go back to work. The NSAI guidelines on retail protection and improvement are available online. I recommend that businesses should look at that document. Another document gives guidelines for manufacturing and how firms can best comply with the new norm. We are in a new world now where we must have social distancing.

There are several other issues that we need to look at. Business operators should talk to their local enterprise offices and get the €2,500 business continuity support. This scheme gives businesses a voucher to enable them to bring in experts and look at financial planning. Do they need to make an application to the bank? The experts will give businesses the advice they are seeking. I would also recommend trading online. I gave an example earlier of one company that has increased its turnover by 200% because it went online. A trading online voucher of €2,500 is available from the local enterprise offices. When companies spend that they can go back and get another one. A total of €5,000 is available. There are far more online transactions now in retail etc.

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