Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The restart grant and restart grant plus schemes were designed to help small and medium-sized businesses through the exceptionally difficult time since the Covid crisis hit the country last spring. The restart grant scheme was launched on 15 May with a budget of €250 million originally. The restart grant plus scheme was launched on 10 August, with an additional budget of €300 million from the Government's July jobs stimulus, as a result of the increase in demand for the original scheme.

The purpose of the schemes was to help with the cost of reopening or adapting business premises in order that normal business could resume and to facilitate dealing with some of the businesses' fixed costs during times of closure. Grant payments were administered by the local authorities via the commercial rates system as this was considered the most effective means of getting urgent financial assistance to small businesses impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. The restart grant scheme closed to new applications on 31 October and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, operated by the Revenue Commissioners, has been in place since that date.

In response to the Deputy's specific question, as of 11 December 2020, Clare County Council has awarded 1,045 restart grants and 1,735 grants under the restart grant plus scheme. In total, more than 118,600 applications have been managed under both restart schemes throughout the country. I compliment the local authorities on their approach to the schemes, working with the relevant Department and with my Department to administer these funds and get them out as quickly as they possibly could. My understanding is that there has been quite a high success rate in terms of applications and processing times. The schemes have been very successful and I am glad Clare County Council embraced them.

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