John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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20. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if the review of the business restart grant has commenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15800/20]

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The question concerns the restart grant. It was launched with a fund of €250 million, as the Tánaiste will be aware, on 22 May. It was devised in recognition of the fact that some small and medium-sized companies and microbusinesses were particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of the pandemic. The programme for Government pledged a review of the grant, which I welcome because it shows a degree of responsiveness and flexibility towards it and how it should work going forward. Regarding that pledge in the programme, have any issues been identified by the Department as needing improvement and, if so, what might they be?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The restart grant was launched on 22 May and is a critically important tool to assist small businesses in reopening their doors. Grant payments range from a minimum of €2,000 to a maximum of €10,000. The scheme was devised in recognition of the fact that microbusinesses and small businesses were and are particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of Covid-19. Using funding allocated by my Department to Enterprise Ireland for the scheme, local authorities are the granting authorities in each of their respective areas.

Some €250 million was allocated to the scheme, and roughly 40,000 companies have applied. That will come to a value of approximately €120 million or €130 million, so there is still a lot yet to apply. Local authorities have been mixed in their capacity to pay the money out, but we are certain that more will be paid out. What we are examining for next week is limited to companies with 50 employees or fewer. We are considering whether the scheme should be expanded to companies with more employees. The average country hotel will have more than 50 employees. They need to get reopened. Educational and other businesses can also have more than 50 employees. In addition, it has not been open to non-rateable businesses such as B&Bs. We need to look at a few businesses like that and consider whether we can extend the scheme to them. However, it should always be seen as part of a wider assistance package for businesses and firms of all sizes.

The main measure is the wage subsidy scheme, which, for most employers I meet, is the one they most want to see extended. It is the issue that is raised most with me by employers. That has already cost about €2 billion. There is the pandemic unemployment scheme for the self-employed and sole traders. We are encouraging them to come off it with an upfront payment. There are low-cost loans, the write-off of commercial rates and the deferred tax liabilities. All of these have helped to improve the financial position of SMEs. It is encouraging that 67,000 people came off the pandemic unemployment payment last week. Some went back into employment and some went back into employment through the wage subsidy scheme. If we can keep up that kind of momentum in the next couple of weeks, we could be heading for a faster recovery than we might have thought possible but I think it will be a bumpy road.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the last two sentences from the Tánaiste. I am speaking as a former Dublin spokesperson on the other side of the House. We have all championed the notion of remote working but it is having consequences. It has consequences for the city in terms of hospitality. Walking around the city, one sees a lot of offices are not occupied and that has an impact on hospitality, whether it be restaurants, cafes, sandwich bars or pubs. It is having enormous consequences. While I hear the Tánaiste's comments on the July stimulus and I welcome them, he seems to indicate that businesses will fail. I know he will agree with me that almost every hospitality business in this city and its suburbs is viable, in the absence of a pandemic, and needs assistance to survive. Is that being considered in the context of the July stimulus? I acknowledge it is not part of the question, but if the Tánaiste could humour me in answering it, I would appreciate it.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The truth is that not every business was viable before the pandemic. There were those who hoped they would become viable as the economy continued to grow. That has not happened. We had a pandemic instead and now the economy has shrunk so, for some businesses that hoped to become viable, that hope is now lost. We will see businesses close in all sectors, unfortunately. That is just the truth of it but we want to minimise the number of businesses that fail and for sectors who were hit hard, hit first and hit worst, such as the hospitality, arts and entertainment sectors, we want them to be able to at least trade through to Christmas if not to the tourist season of next year. They will need special help to do that.

I take the Deputy's point about the city centre. I am a fan of remote working. It has huge benefits for parents and for the rural economy and rural areas. It has benefits in terms of reducing traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions but it is evident how quiet the city centre is at the moment. I wonder how many of those sandwich bars, coffee shops, small restaurants and so on in our city centres - not just in Dublin - can survive, if we do not have footfall. No amount of Government interventions, changes to VAT rates or commercial rates will replace footfall. We will need to have some sort of return of people to their offices over the next couple of weeks, providing the pandemic is under control - perhaps people working two or three days at home and two or three days back in the office. That will help the city centre.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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On the Tánaiste's comment on trading through Christmas and until the next tourist season, in what way does he anticipate the environment will be different next spring in terms of the pandemic that will allow businesses that cannot function and trade now, to function and trade then?

What is the Tánaiste's response to the recent comments by Irish Small and Medium Employers, ISME, that the scale and aggressiveness of the business support measures announced by our UK and EU counterparts might serve as a template for Government when it comes to the stimulus package?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I met representatives of ISME last week. We are paying attention to what other countries do and every country's package is different. We compare favourably when it comes to the pandemic unemployment payment. Not many countries are providing €350 per week to workers. That is triple what it is in Northern Ireland or Britain. We compare quite well when it comes to the wage subsidy scheme, which will end in the UK, for example, in October. We have not yet set a date for ours. We probably need to do more with direct grants and in terms of our loan guarantee. These are the kinds of things we are working on for next week and beyond.

Regarding next spring, unfortunately none of us can predict the future. I anticipate we will have spikes and clusters but I hope we will not return to a nationwide lockdown again, which will allow the economy to recover. I hope we will get to the point where we have a vaccine, effective treatments and potentially screening at airports and so on. That would allow a decent tourism season to happen next year. This year will be very difficult but I hope Christmas and next year will be good and maybe there will be pent-up demand to help compensate for some of the losses this year.