Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware the Taoiseach addressed the business supports on a macro level earlier this morning. It is clear the Government is backing business and helping companies to pay their energy bills this winter. An example of that in my own constituency is a retail food business that had a bill of €1,300 for two months last year and this year it is €6,932. It is an extraordinary increase for the same reference period.

Here is the point of difference. There is another business in Blackrock that is about to open a retail food business, an equivalent business, and because it does not have the equivalent reference period from last year, it looks like it will receive no support from the Government. The point of the whole scheme is took keep businesses open and keep employment going. They have made the investment and they are ready to rock and ready to open. However, it seems that because this administrative tag is missing, they will not get support under the business scheme. Is there a way of looking at either a differentiation within it or a separate sub-scheme for those businesses that are clearly in the process of opening? They have leases and they have made all of the investment. It is very clear that they are there already and are ready to rock, except for these sort of bills.

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