Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to highlight a number of incentives, reliefs and supports available from the Government to businesses, individuals and families. I will start with the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, which provides qualifying businesses with supports of up to 40% of the increase in electricity or gas up to €10,000 per month, or €30,000 in certain cases. This scheme has been in place since last September and is administered by Revenue. Figures I came across recently have been surprising in the context of the low uptake. While 15,275 businesses have registered for the scheme, only 9,148 have to date begun to claim what they are entitled to. So far, €17.4 million has been claimed but €13.24 million is yet to be paid out. When we look at the number of claims it is clear that perhaps more needs to be done in creating more awareness among the business community of what reliefs are there.

The Government recently introduced a scheme for those paying rent for private rental accommodation whereby they can claim a tax credit of €500. The parents of a student going to college can claim it for their son or daughter. It is a good scheme and I know the Leader has been trying to highlight it and get the message out. It speaks to a larger issue. Many credits available to businesses and individuals go unclaimed. Last year it was revealed that €620 million that individuals could have had in their pockets went unclaimed. At a time when people are struggling and families are finding it tight to make ends meet perhaps the onus is on the Government to create more awareness of the various schemes and reliefs available to individuals so that people will get what they are entitled to.