Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the power up grant for small business which was part of budget 2025 for the retail and hospitality sector. Some €170 million was made available with €4,000 per business. I and other members of the Regional Group are finding that certain businesses are unable to avail of this grant for the simple reason that they did not qualify for the increased cost of business support grant that was there previously. Therefore, some businesses are being treated one way and others are being treated in another way. There is no equality in this. The deadline for applications is this Friday. As one gesture to small business, the Taoiseach might extend the deadline and he might ensure that the instruction goes out to every local authority to allow people who have not previously got a grant to apply for the grant now. We are talking about small business and about people who thought that this was great news but when one goes into detail, one finds that some people do not qualify. In view of the fact that the Government has not reduced the VAT rate for small businesses, this was the Government's answer. Please ensure that this grant gets to everybody. I thank the Taoiseach.

See this speech in context