Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the twin issues of south-east economic and enterprise development and the issue around business supports in the current energy crisis. The Government is introducing a temporary business energy support scheme as announced by the Minister for Finance in the budget. That scheme will be open to businesses that carry on a case 1 trade, are tax-compliant and have experienced a significant increase in their natural gas and electricity costs. As the Deputy knows, it will be administered by the Revenue Commissioners and operate on a self-assessment basis. Businesses will be required to register for the scheme. It is proposed the scheme will operate by comparing the average unit price for the relevant bill period in 2022 with the average unit price in the corresponding reference period in 2021. Once eligibility criteria are met the support will be calculated on the basis of 40% of the amount of the increase in the bill amount. In addition to that a monthly cap of €10,000 per trade will apply and an overall cap will apply on the total amount a business can claim. The scheme is designed to be compliant with the EU state aid temporary crisis framework and will need approval by the Commission.

There is a range of other business supports. I do not know whether the company the Deputy referenced would come under the Enterprise Ireland scheme, namely, the €200 million targeted Ukraine enterprise crisis scheme to assist viable but vulnerable manufacturers and exporters. There is a €1.2 billion State-backed Ukraine credit guarantee scheme for SMEs, primary producers and small mid-cap businesses with fewer than 500 employees. There is a new growth and sustainability investment loan scheme and then €4 million has gone to the Local Enterprise Office network, to include a new capital grant for microenterprise for energy efficiency and so forth.

On the comparison between the south east and the WDC, employment in the south east has grown by 8.6% in the last year. That is from quarter 2 of 2021 to quarter 2 of 2022 and covers counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. There are now 79 IDA Ireland client companies in the south east employing about 15,000 people. In June the sod was turned on the Glanbia and Royal A-Ware €200 million continental cheese facility at Belview. That strategically-important national project will support the incomes of over 4,500 family farms, create 80 jobs and 400 construction jobs in the south east. Over 6,000 people are employed in around 100 Enterprise Ireland client-based companies in County Waterford and the Local Enterprise Office also supports 1,000 jobs. The Deputy knows there have been very significant investments announced in the last two years on the IDA Ireland front. Eirgen is investing €12 million in its manufacturing facilities in Waterford City. Bausch + Lomb announced investment of €90 million to expand its manufacturing operations in Waterford in July 2021. Infosys announced 250 jobs and a state-of-the-art delivery centre. PublicRelay, a US communications and analytics firm, is also establishing in Waterford. I will come back to the Deputy on the supplementary.

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