Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a ardú ar maidin.

As Deputy Stanton is aware, the power up grant scheme was announced in the budget to deliver a grant of €4,000 to eligible businesses right around the country. The scheme follows the success of the increased cost of business, ICOB, scheme which has paid out more than €244 million to 75,000 SMEs, including 39,000 SMEs in the retail and hospitality sector. The power up grant was introduced in recognition of the difficulties that businesses in the retail and hospitality sector continue to face. Businesses in those sectors that received a second grant under the ICOB scheme are in line to receive an energy grant of €4,000 under power up. Local authorities that are administering the scheme have emailed relevant businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors that received the second ICOB payment with information on how to register. In order to get payments to businesses before the end of the year, the registration period is short, so I would urge eligible businesses to register before the 8 November deadline.

Deputy Stanton specifically asked about landlord and tenants, and the Minister, Deputy Burke, has informed me that the criteria for the power up grant are aligned with the increased cost of business scheme. Businesses that are tenants and received the second payment under the increased cost of business scheme can register as long as they are ratepayers. A tenant who pays his or her rates to the landlord, who then pays the local authority, is not eligible. The person running the business must be the ratepayer. While the Minister is aware that some businesses have entered into arrangements with their landlords whereby the landlord pays the rates for his or her tenants, the legal position is that tenants whose rent incorporates their rates obligation, which is remitted by the landlord, cannot be deemed to be ratepayers.

The Minister recognises the issues the Deputy has raised, however, as stated, there are legal reasons for not including tenants who pay rates through their landlord. The Deputy will appreciate that it would be inappropriate and potentially counterproductive for the Minister to attempt to interfere with existing commercial arrangements between small businesses and their landlords in the context of any business grant scheme. The priority has been and continues to be to ensure that as many businesses as possible in the hospitality and retail sectors, which are facing great difficulties due to the increased costs associated with running a business, receive the money as quickly as possible. Again, I urge businesses which received the second ICOB grant to register by 8 November. Businesses that are having difficulty registering should contact their local authority directly.

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