Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of my colleagues for their contributions. I have taken note of a number of the points that have been made. I wish to clarify a few points in terms of the effect of the resolutions that are before us tonight, which we can do under the existing Act and the changes that can only be brought about by way of new legislation in the House, which will be introduced shortly by means of a Finance Bill.

The resolutions before us tonight mean that we can now extend the scheme to the end of April but it will require legislation to extend it to the end of May, which is what I intend to do, as well as providing the potential within the Bill to extend it for a further two months should the Government decide to do so. What we can do by way of the resolution tonight is increase the monthly cash cap from €10,000 to €15,000 for a business with a single premises and from €30,000 to €45,00 for a business with multiple premises. That will be on a prospective basis from 1 March.

It will require legislation to implement the other changes that we announced as the Government yesterday. First, the energy cost threshold, or the eligibility rule which is currently that a business must have had a 50% increase in the average per unit cost relative to the reference period, is being reduced to 30%. Once we have that change enacted, it can be applied retrospectively to 1 September. What that means is that businesses whose energy costs went up, in terms of the per unit average price, in September, October and November 2022 relative to the same months in 2021 by 40% for example and which are currently excluded from the scheme will qualify. Moreover, they will be able to go all the way back in their claim to 1 September. I propose that we will do that under the new legislation. The other area is the level of relief. The percentage of the increase that a business gets under the TBESS will go from 40% to 50% and again, that can only be done on a prospective basis. That is the advice I have received in relation to that.

I will now turn to a few of the specific questions that were put. Deputy O'Reilly asked about the source of the funding for the grant scheme that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will introduce for oil and LPG. That will come out of the TBESS Vote within the aforementioned Department's overall budget. Deputy Canney posed a question in relation to farmers. Farmers are eligible for payments under the TBESS in the same way as any other business that is carrying on a trade which is taxable under Case 1 of Schedule D, where they meet all of the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria will apply in the normal way. Perhaps the issue raised with Deputy Canney relates to cases where the bill partly relates to the domestic premises and partly to the farming business. An apportionment has to be done in relation to that. Any amount charged on an energy bill for a claim period that is not expended wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the farming trade must be deducted from the relevant energy bill amount for the claim period for the purpose of calculating the eligible costs. That is a term of the scheme that one would expect to see.

Deputy Fitzmaurice raised a particular case and I ask him to bring the details to my attention later. He said that a business was told not to submit an application yet and I will certainly have a look at that. Deputy Nash raised an issue relating to landlords and cases where the energy account is not in the name of the business. It is a condition of the scheme under the existing legislation that a business that does not hold an energy account and therefore does not receive bills directly from the energy supplier will not be able to make a claim for payment under the TBESS because it does not meet the qualifying criteria. That is the position in relation to the legislation currently in place.

Deputy O'Donoghue raised a question about the interaction with debt warehousing. Businesses availing of tax warehousing can claim TBESS and are considered tax-compliant. There is no offset in relation to the TBESS payment and the tax that has been warehoused. There is an offset in respect of current liability but not in respect of tax liability that has been warehoused under the Revenue scheme.

I would very much appreciate the support of the House for the passage of these Resolutions which will allow us to take an important step to significantly improving the scheme for the businesses that I think we all recognise do need the extra help.

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