Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the comments of my colleague, Deputy McGuinness, particularly with regard to people aged over 66 and, in many instances, sole traders, self-employed and with smaller-scale businesses. I welcome the Minister's outline of the supports available, however. They are very significant. The figures the Minister quoted earlier regarding the economic cost of Covid-19 demonstrate very clearly the impact it has had on employment, enterprise and commerce in general. Of course, that pales into insignificance when we think of the cost in lost lives and people suffering.

I welcome those supports, however. I welcome also the fact the Minister said that certainty will be given. We need to ensure we help maintain viable business and employment and provide businesses with certainty to the maximum extent possible. I gather the estimated cost of the extension of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, amounts to €1.32 billion. That is a substantial amount of money.

Since the onset of pandemic, some €12 billion has been spent in direct income supports. Overall, the amount allocated for Covid-19-related supports across 2020 and 2021 is in excess of €28 billion. That demonstrates very clearly to all of us the awful economic cost of Covid-19.

The Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, is a good and essential support to businesses that have witnessed a major reduction in their turnover. Again, the EWSS supports employment and supports employers to maintain the link with the employee. For too long in this country, we did not value enough the corporate knowledge, expertise and experience that had been built up by employees, whether it was in the public or private sector. It is important that link is maintained between employer and employee so that, hopefully, these businesses can return to a trading position and become viable again. We need those experienced personnel back. We need the person back who knows the customer for their business, who knows the market and has expertise and corporate knowledge in that particular area.

I welcome the fact the small business assistance scheme, SBAS, was introduced last month. In quarter 1, that will allow a maximum payment of €4,000 to companies, the self-employed, sole traders and partnerships. I raised a number of queries with regard to this particular scheme. I am aware of a number of business owners who were deemed ineligible for this new scheme due to having claimed under the CRSS. The amount received was much lower than what they would receive under the SBAS. I repeat, and I know it is under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, that I would like the Minister to look at this again with his colleagues across Government. Such businesses, which will struggle to remain open in the future, should be allowed to avail of the SBAS. Any amounts claimed under other grant schemes, however, should be deducted from the final approved amount if they were to be allowed to participate in the new scheme.

Of the cases I have in mind, the applicants availing of a very small CRSS payment were not aware of the small businesses assistance scheme when claiming under the other schemes. They are small traders and one-person enterprises. Those are the types of business that populate the main streets in our smaller towns and villages. All of us know of the particular challenges facing retailers in our smaller towns and villages when we see nothing only delivery vans carrying goods to households in every estate in each town and county in the country today. That demonstrates very clearly the huge challenge faced by retailers to open again and make their businesses viable. Again, assistance had been given through the local enterprise offices, LEO, to assist smaller businesses to go online and partake in the digital economy. I appeal for Government to place a particular emphasis on and give particular assistance to the smaller-scale businesses in order that they can develop an online presence.

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