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

I thank the Deputies for these questions. I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 47 together.

The enterprise support grant is being extended to assist eligible self-employed individuals who are exiting the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment or jobseeker's schemes after 25 June 2020 to restart their business which was closed due to the impact of the pandemic.

The grant of up to €1,000 will be payable to self-employed microenterprises which employ fewer than ten people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 million and are not eligible for support from the Covid-19 business restart grant or other similar business reopening grants.  The Department is currently developing the systems to put this support into effect and will communicate how to access the grant in the coming week or so. Funding of €12 million has been approved for this grant.

In order to be eligible for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment an individual must have lost his or her employment due to the pandemic.  Self-employed persons must have suffered a collapse in their trading income to the extent that they are available to take up other full-time work.  This means that a self-employed person can engage in once-off or sporadic emergency work and still retain eligibility for this payment.  In cases of doubt where emergency work is undertaken, an individual should discuss the matter with the Department.

If self-employed persons are ineligible for the pandemic unemployment payment, as they are engaged in regular employment or it generates significant income, they may be entitled to support under the jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance scheme depending on their individual circumstances.

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