Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. We have taken a number of steps to address the concerns of small businesses and the challenge they are facing around rising costs. The increased cost of business scheme has paid out over €244 million in this year to almost 75,000 SMEs, which includes 38,000 SMEs in retail and hospitality.

Recognising that businesses operating in retail and hospitality sectors face higher costs, we have announced a €170 million power-up grant in budget 2025. Under this grant, these retail and hospitality businesses that received a second grant under the increased cost of business scheme are in line to receive a grant of €4,000. Officials in our Department are currently working on finalising details, and the Minister, Deputy Burke, will be announcing those details later today.

The local enterprise office, LEO, policy statement outlines the centrality of all LEOs in promoting a pro-business and pro-enterprise environment in every county. They are championing local business development priorities. I acknowledge in particular that this year is their tenth year of operation. The LEOs do fantastic work nationwide. The LEOs’ lean, green and digital supports are designed to help small businesses to address some of their most challenging issues, namely, saving time, money and energy.

In May of this year, the Government agreed a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance supports for small business. As part of the SME support package, the maximum amount available under the energy-efficiency grant was increased to a maximum of €10,000 and the grant now covers 75% of project costs. This is available for any business with up to 50 employees.

We have extended the eligibility criteria for the digital for business consultancy scheme and have renamed the trading online voucher as the "grow digital voucher", providing up to €5,000 in funding towards a wide variety of digital interventions that will support businesses and help them to reduce costs. Both of these programmes are open to businesses with up to 50 employees, regardless of sector.

The Deputy will be aware that the new national enterprise hub is providing a centralised signposting service for over 230 Government supports, and we continue to be open to proposals and suggestions in this space.

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