Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank Senator Byrne for raising this really important issue. It is particularly pertinent given the Senator's personal experience as a businesswoman in Limerick for many years as well as her parallel political career that is continuing to thrive.

I think we can all agree in this House today that we all want to see SMEs succeed. SMEs are the backbone of our economy. Small businesses have been through so much over the past few years, from Brexit to Covid and now this energy crisis. Having supported businesses through the first two crises, the last thing we want to do is see this crisis become the final straw.

As Senator Byrne mentioned, TBESS was introduced in budget 2023 as a major way to support SMEs and businesses of all sizes through this energy crisis. When I entered the Department in January it became clear that the scheme in its current form was not working for businesses. There is a budget of €650 million for this scheme and we really want to see it spent. Where the scheme was not working, we committed to addressing this.

I engaged with businesses both on a departmental level and on a local level where the same suggestions cropped up repeatedly. Yesterday, we saw these points taken on board with the announcement of an updated TBESS. Now businesses will have to show a 30% increase in their bills rather than a 50% increase, and they will receive up to €15,000 per month rather than €10,000. For businesses with multiple locations, they can now receive up to €45,000 per month. We have also secured funding for access to finance measures, including the growth and sustainability loan scheme and the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme. In addition, and as mentioned by the Senator, the lower 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector has been extended until August. These are two very clear and tangible ways we are supporting SMEs across Ireland, and reacting to the situations with which they are faced.

On a wider level, our plans to support SMEs now and up to 2030 are laid out in the White Paper on Enterprise, which was published in December. The White Paper sets out our vision for businesses based in Ireland, and how they can succeed and find a competitive advantage while staying sustainable, innovative and productive. This goes hand in hand with their roles in supporting jobs across the country be it Limerick, Cork or, indeed, Dún Laoghaire. As such, in the White Paper there are several priority enterprise objectives which include decarbonisation, promoting the digital transformation, advancing trade and our foreign direct investment, strengthening our exports, stepping up enterprise innovation and building on our existing strengths. It is particularly important to mention exports because, as we saw again yesterday, there have been record figures in our exports over the last number of years despite the onslaught of the pandemic.

More widely, these are areas in which we can do more for small businesses. Access to finance is a big area where we know we can and must do more for SMEs that want to start up and scale up. Additional supports for SMEs include the expansion of the local enterprise office, LEO, network to support businesses of up to 50 employees as opposed to ten, thus helping SMEs with productivity challenges, enhancing skills and capacity building, and promoting innovation.

The success of SMEs is directly linked to the success of our economy. I have made it a priority in my role to meet businesses, hear their concerns and take their concerns on board, and feed that back to improve outcomes where I know we can.

The Senator has invited me to visit businesses in Limerick in May and I very much look forward to doing so. I hope we can meet businesses across Limerick city, many of whom we have frequented and been patrons of before in personal as well as political capacities. I am keen to address these challenges, talk them through it and, in many cases, to speak with businesses and let them know about the very many supports that are on offer from the Government and the State agencies.