Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am absolutely shocked by the figures the Minister has presented. If I am reading them correctly, 1,029 grants have actually been paid, to the value of roughly €2 million and there are potentially 5,000 grants remaining to be paid. If we are dealing with a scenario that they have only paid 1,000 of the potential 6,000 grants and we gave a commitment as a Government that this would be paid by the end of April or start of May, that is absolutely shocking. The accountability here is frightening for me. Small businesses are on their knees. The money is in the bank account. There is potentially €25 million euros waiting at the moment to be paid out. A sum of €2 million has been paid out from the local authority in Cork itself and 90% have been paid out across the country. We have a problem here in how this happened. I am deeply frustrated by this. It is not the Minister's fault because he made the money available, but it is deeply frustrating that the local authority has left the businesses of Cork hanging for the money. It is just not good enough.

What do we do now? If the local authority does not have time to meet the Minister, which is shocking in its own right, we need to do something about how it operates. It has no real sympathy or empathy for the businesses of Cork that need this money and does not seem to be accountable to national Government. The knock-on implications for businesses that I support and represent could result in them going under because of the local authority's inability to process this form.The knock-on implication is that businesses I support and represent will go under because of our local authority's inability to process this form. It is illogical.

That is my frustration. I need to know how we can make sure these 5,000 applications will be approved because, at the moment, the local authority just does not seem up to the job.