Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. I agree with Deputy O'Connor. Cork County Council is the largest local authority in the country and it has the money. We do need to see action now and I will be demanding it over the next few days. As I said, I spoke with the head of the CCMA finance committee. I have written to all chief executives this morning on foot of the change last week. In the coming days, I will be working to ensure that this is paid out. There should not be a timelag. It is very simple, it is not a complicated scheme and they have the finance. It is a matter of putting resources on it and getting the money deployed into the bank accounts of businesses.

Regarding extending the payment, well in excess of 70% of businesses have registered in many counties. We have another week so it is important that we also do our job and get the message out there that this application can be done in two minutes on a phone. It is very easy to do. We are putting all the resources behind it and we will be doing another round of advertising in the last week on rural and provincial radio stations and going through the national media, trying to highlight that the scheme is ready and open for business. I appeal to businesses to register. The Government is putting a quarter of a billion euro on the table to try to assist with the increased cost of business. We want businesses to get that money and will be ensuring that local authorities do their bit as part of the jigsaw. We do value their work. I know we get frustrated by local authorities at times, but I want to work with them. We are working together to get this money into the bank accounts of businesses. It is there to support them.

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