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

I thank the Deputy for raising that issue. We currently have a suite of supports. Some of them are loans and some of them are grants. We have the business continuity grant. One gets that from the local enterprise office so that gives one access to somebody who will give advice and help to put together a financial plan for one's company. We then have the grants for getting online. In fairness, many businesses have taken that up. Finally, we have the restart grant, which is a fund I announced last Saturday week of €250 million. Tomorrow, I will bring to Cabinet the details of how that grant will work. It will be a maximum of €10,000 and it will be connected to the rates businesses paid last year. That will be a direct cash grant into their business. That means they will be able to use that money if they need to buy some Perspex or whatever to put up personal protection equipment, PPE, in their businesses. They can use it for overhanging costs. They might have an ESB bill and a few other costs like that. It is there for them to use and I believe it will be very much welcomed.

There is also the wage subsidy scheme. People should remember that under this scheme, when an employer starts to bring back his or her workers, and hopefully all of them will be coming back over the next period of time, the State will pay up to 85% of the wages of the workers, with a maximum of €410 per worker. That will continue until 16 June. That, in itself, will be a cash injection also when employers have their businesses back up and running.

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