Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very important issue and raising awareness of the increased cost of business scheme, which is very important as a mechanism for the Government to assist businesses with the cost of doing business. Supporting SMEs is one of the Government's clear priorities and the increased cost of business grant is a key focus and part of our Government's response. The Government signed off on a package of €257 million for the increased cost of business grant and local authorities, funded through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, are administering the roll-out of the grant to qualifying businesses on behalf of our Department. The grant is squarely aimed at SMEs. For qualifying businesses with a 2023 commercial rates bill of less than €10,000, the ICOB grant will be paid at a rate of 50% of the business's commercial rate bill for 2023. For qualifying businesses with a 2023 commercial rate bill of between €10,000 and €30,000, the ICOB will be €5,000.

Local authorities wrote to rate-paying businesses with details of how to register for the scheme and businesses then verified their details through an online portal.We ensured it was as simple a registration system as possible, as we know businesses are busy and their time is very valuable. The process will take less than five minutes. In March, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, working with the Department of Social Protection, published an assessment of the increased costs of the forthcoming changes to working conditions. The analysis notes that businesses operating in the retail and hospitality sectors are among those most affected. Informed by that analysis on 15 May, the Government announced a reopening of the cost-of-business scheme for a further 14 days and launched a second phase of the scheme, with businesses in hospitality and retail sectors receiving a second or double payment. During the reopening, the Department ran a nationwide communications campaign to ensure that businesses were aware of the grant.

As of 10 a.m yesterday, 17 June, there have been a total of 80,577 properties registered, representing 66% of estimated eligible businesses, which includes 5,245 registrations in the reopening period. To date, more than 43,000 SMEs have received payment under the ICAP scheme, amounting to over €90 million. In the case of Cork County Council 1,029 SMEs have received a grant, representing about €2 million worth of payments to those SMEs. Cork County Council is working on processing the remaining 4,901 properties that have registered for the grant.

To answer Senator Lombard's question, I confirm that all local authorities have received 50% of the money in advance. My Department was very clear that we wanted to ensure local authorities have no funding issue, which is very important. Under the service level agreement with my Department, local authorities are being paid for administering the grant. I want to work proactively with local authorities to ensure that this valuable money gets out to businesses as soon as possible.

It is disappointing that Cork County Council is lagging behind the rest of the local authority network. I was in Cork last Thursday and offered to meet with the executive or those administering the grant but, unfortunately, they were unavailable to meet. I asked to meet with the team doing the actual administration, which I think is very important but, unfortunately, they were not available to meet either. I raised my concerns with the CCMA; I know that Moira Murrell the new chief executive took office yesterday and she has assured me of her full co-operation in this area. Unfortunately, and I say this in no arrogant way, Government Ministers have very little time and when going to a constituency, we really need the co-operation of the local authortiy network to work with us. I want to work with local authorities. I have been a Minister with responsibility for local government for two and a half years, right through the Covid period and I know how important it is to get rates, rebates etc. into local government to ensure that they can deliver all their services. My job is to be proactive, to work with local authorities and I hope that in the spirit of that co-operation, in the future we will see Cork County Council willingly working with Government to ensure that this money is paid out to the many businesses and rate payers in their area.