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

Yesterday marked a milestone for many businesses across the country. It was fantastic to see businesses opening their doors after so much time and being available to their customers. Certainty is being brought back into their lives.

I have visited many of my local businesses and it was stark to see people being served by staff who were behind visors or having treatments delivered by people wearing face masks. It is a visual reminder of how much society has changed in recent months and how much our businesses have had to adapt and pivot to maintain their profits, but also to maintain jobs.

The grants and the business support schemes put in place by the outgoing Government have made a significant difference. They have been able to provide the certainty for businesses and employees that was needed during these exceptionally uncertain times. Some of the feedback I got from local businesses that I visited in recent days, such as pubs in Rathcoole, the jewellers in Lucan and some of the cafés in Lucan village, is that, as entrepreneurs and small businesses, they are finding it difficult to cut through the paperwork and the red tape to access some of those grants. In particular, the restart grant in my own local authority area has a six to ten-week turnaround time but businesses have not been given that information and have not been told they are in a queue and that the local authority will get back to them in six to ten weeks. What can be done to provide certainty? How can people be given access to that level of information? How can we make their lives, as small businesses and entrepreneurs, a little easier during this very difficult time?

I thank the Tánaiste for everything he has done to lead Ireland through the crisis in recent months. I am very pleased he has taken on this brief because it will be the most critical brief at the Cabinet table in the coming months as we get the economy back on track, so we can make sure people have money in their pockets and that we can return to normality in our society.

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