Results 40,661-40,680 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5, 17, 20 to 22, inclusive, 25, 26, 32 and 38 together. To give a direct answer on Clare, we think that 3,955 businesses will potentially benefit. I will now answer the question more broadly because other Deputies have questions in this regard. The increased cost of business grant, announced in budget 2024, is intended to benefit particularly small...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: There were a lot of questions there and I will go through them. First, I refer to the Deputies who have raised their areas. From a Cork perspective, in Cork County Council, we expect that 15,718 businesses may be eligible. In Cork City Council, the figure is 6,857. Therefore, across Cork city and county, there are approximately 23,000 businesses that may be eligible. These are not small...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I will finish on this. Sorry.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I will leave that last question to Deputy Calleary, seeing as he was specifically asked about it.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: We are very reliant on the local authorities to get this payment out as quickly as possible. They have been hugely helpful. The CCMA and the LGMA have been very helpful. This was a big ask of them with very little notice, in truth. We put this scheme in place at budget time. It involved a lot of money going out to a lot of businesses in a relatively short space of time and it became very...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: We can have another go at it, perhaps with a slightly different slant, because it is a good question. I propose to take Questions Nos 6, 9 and 35 together. I assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to backing business and will continue to work closely with SMEs nationwide by supporting their growth, helping them to find new markets and stimulating job creation. I know that at...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I hear the concern regarding the hospitality and food sector. I have seen that for myself. We have seen some quite high-profile cafés and restaurants going out of business. Let me set the context. It is important to say this. Considerably more businesses are being set up than are closing down. Last year, five times as many businesses were set up as were lost. That being said, in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I would like to dispel any concerns that we are not looking at this with a sense of urgency. We are. I fought hard around budget time, as did the Ministers of State, Deputies Calleary and Richmond, to make sure we could get as much money as possible for the ICOB scheme. I do not think any Opposition parties called for a fund to help compensate businesses for increased pressures in costs....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I have two different answers. My explanatory note is better than my speaking notes. I will give the Deputy some of the data because I know that is what he wants. When the initial allocation was approved in October last year, it was impossible to estimate the full extent of the damage caused and the number of businesses impacted by the exceptional weather events in the period around 17...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy knows, in addition to the establishing the Red Cross compensation scheme, we instructed Microfinance Ireland to work with businesses to try to put low-cost loans of up to €25,000 in place to help them from a cashflow point of view. I know that does not necessarily cover some of the questions the Deputy asked but it is worth raising. It is important to say that this is a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy and I have met businesses that have been particularly badly impacted in Midleton together. If there are other individual schemes we can learn lessons from or if people feel they have been unfairly treated, I would like to hear about them because I would like to talk to the Red Cross about that. The Red Cross has done a great job on the whole. We are very reliant on it. Some...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Corporate Governance (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am aware of the recently published report and its findings. Indeed, I had hoped to provide an opening address at the launch of the report but, unfortunately, I was not able to be there on the day. At the launch of the 2020 benchmarking report, I said that the report was a valuable baseline for many Irish companies and that still holds true...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Corporate Governance (8 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: We have started laying the foundations for completing a public consultation and we held the first stakeholder forum meeting in December last year. These important steps are helping to create a viable pathway forward to create a second plan, which I accept is necessary. The last plan is now out of date. While there is still a lot of good stuff in it we do need to update that plan. We need...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Sustainable Development Goals (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a significant and ambitious framework. A whole-of-Government approach to its implementation has been taken in Ireland. Ireland’s Second National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals, 2022-2024 was published in October 2022. The Plan was developed by the Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 135 and 154 together. The Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) grant was announced as part of the Budget 2024 package. It is intended to particularly benefit small and medium sized businesses who operate from a rateable premises. The grant is only available to businesses who operate from a rateable premises and will not be available to vacant premises. The grant...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Official Travel (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: The information requested is currently being collated by my Department and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as soon as it is finalised.

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Reports (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: Following consistent feedback from the market that scale ups are having difficulty accessing finance in Ireland, my Department established the Finance for Scale Ups (FSU) Working Group in 2022 This group consisted of representatives from my Department, the Department of Finance; Enterprise Ireland (EI); the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF); the Strategic Banking Corporation of...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Advertising (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: My Department did not start spending on online advertising until 2018. Details of advertising spend for both traditional and online advertising for the past ten years are set out in tabular form below. Year Traditional Advertising Costs € Online Advertising Costs € Total € 2014 80,287 ...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Contracts (7 Feb 2024)

Simon Coveney: The public relations services providers engaged by my Department and Offices of my Department and the details of the services supplied and the expenditure on each from 2014 to 2018 are set out in the below table. My Department has not spent money or sought external assistance with Departmental / Ministerial public relations from 2019 to date. Year Name of Public...