Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members for their support for the Bill. We tried to have this debate last week. I get a sense from the majority of Senators that they want to support businesses through this scheme. I recognise the support and co-operation I have had in bringing the Bill through quickly and without pre-legislative scrutiny. That was important, as I mentioned in the other House.

The Bill seeks to assist businesses, in conjunction with other schemes, at a difficult time. The temporary business energy support scheme probably is the most important element and it will be up and running in the next couple of weeks. Once the Finance Bill goes through this House, the scheme can formally be processed and people should have payments before Christmas. Likewise, we hope some of the banks will be in a position to make loans available under the credit guarantee scheme before Christmas and, if not, very early in the new year. It probably will begin with an initial offering through the traditional lenders, after which it will be open to all lenders to bid for the quota in the new year. We saw quite a large uptake of previous schemes by lending institutes, including credit unions, to make money available, through the SBCI, to businesses. I hope that will be repeated. I agree with Senator Gavan that it is a demand-led scheme. We offer it as a support to businesses but we cannot make them avail of it. Close to 10,000 came forward to avail of the scheme during the Covid period, which was quite a healthy response. If more come forward on this occasion, we have set money set aside to cater for that.

I would say to businesses that it is important to have conversations about their future. When I meet business owners most days of the week through all the various forums, I tell them it is an important time to look ahead at their finances for the next couple of years and to avail of these schemes. We have had EU frameworks in place in recent years in response to the Covid crisis, Brexit and so on. Now, in response to the war in Ukraine, we have a framework that allows us to offer these schemes. They will not always be there but it is a good time for people to look at the finances of their business and to plan ahead to get through the next couple of months and also the next five or six years. This is six-year money and we cannot go beyond that with this scheme under the EU framework. The future growth loan scheme, which will be up to ten years, will give people an opportunity to invest in their business in the long term. These schemes make sense in conjunction with the other supports the Government has made available.

Sinn Féin Members have asked that the rate be set at 2.5%. That is not an option for us because it would exclude a lot of the lenders we want to bring into business lending. That rate will not work for them. Obviously, I want to ensure the money is available as cheaply as possible but setting the rate too low is not an option because it would mean the scheme does not work the way we expect it to work. We will engage with all individual lenders on their rates to make sure they are passing on a significant cut on the interest rates they would usually charge, as they must do under the framework. That will be captured and we will ensure fees are kept to a minimum as well. I believe we will be able to achieve that.

The fee structure that must come with the guarantee means there is not the option to have a facility for non-repayment for 12 months. We cannot provide that under the scheme but we will work closely with businesses to make the terms and conditions easy for them. Microfinance Ireland is providing loans up to €25,000 for businesses and, in some cases, it provides a 12-month non-repayment option as well as lower interest rates if people work through the local enterprise offices, LEOs.

As referenced by Senator Buttimer, we all recognise that the LEOs are doing great work throughout the country. I am delighted to say I have got them all up and running in the past year. On behalf of the Houses, I compliment the work they have been doing through a very difficult few years. They have reached out to many more business customers than they normally would in that period. We hope to be able to continue and extend the work they are doing with businesses and in reaching more sectors. We saw that this week in the announcement of a new framework to allow Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs to work with companies with more than ten employees. That is really positive.This is reflective of the work done by the local enterprise offices. I hope we can do this also. Senator Crowe made his point very clearly and it is important. These businesses are under pressure and not by their own fault. There are external factors. This is why it is only right that the Government, using taxpayers' money in a clever way, is able to support businesses as best as we possibly can. I hope we will be able to do so in a timely manner.

I believe I have covered most of the questions that were raised. If I have missed anything I will certainly pick it up on Committee and Report Stages. I thank all of the Members for their support. Senator Buttimer and others raised the issue of hotels. He met the federation in Cork. We understand that certain sectors are under a lot of pressure. We will engage with them and we are working with them through the hospitality forum on which the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, are engaging with businesses directly. Many of them are also involved in the enterprise forum which at this stage probably engages weekly on trying to target the supports. We recognise coming into the new year that while these schemes are open to all businesses we will have to go sector by sector to keep an eye on and work with each sector to make sure the right supports are in place. It is important for us that the initial funding that was set aside to deal with the energy issue is dished out in the coming months to give businesses a chance. Then we can work with them on the other initiatives.

Access to labour and talent is key. The work being done by the Minister, Deputy Harris, and other Departments was rightly referenced. A whole-of-government approach is being taken to addressing the skills shortage. Having 2.5 million people at work is a good place to be but almost every business we speak to does not have enough people and needs more people. The first priority is to keep the businesses open to survive these couple of months. They will have a very positive future if we can attract more talent. Quite a high number of people have left the workforce for various reasons. We need to find more ways to attract them back. This is why it is important to have the right tax regime and the right terms and conditions, good quality pay, sick pay, auto enrolment of pensions and the living wage. We are heading towards these. These will improve the offer of a job and should help us to deal with some of the labour shortages.

There are also the right supports when it comes to training. The education and training boards offer courses and Skillnet also offers great supports. Again this is using taxpayers' money in a clever way to support training, education, apprenticeships and higher education. We need this combination. The business community must be part of this conversation and it is. It has expressed its desire to get involved in the formulation of courses and developing new apprenticeships. This is something we want to build on. The budget set aside an increased amount of money to achieve this. I hope that if we can get through this temporary difficult time for businesses, we will have a very positive journey through the future.