Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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183. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the financial supports available to private coach and bus operators who do not have a premises and do not pay rates to their local council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16711/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am keenly aware that businesses are continuing to make massive sacrifices to protect their communities. With this in mind the Government has put in place a comprehensive package to help businesses and workers during the pandemic, including the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), the COVID-19 Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS), the Small Business Assistance Scheme for COVID (SBASC), low-cost loans, the deferral and warehousing of tax liabilities and the waiver of commercial rates. Details of the wide range of supports available are on my Department’s website: Government supports for COVID-19 impacted businesses - DETE (enterprise.gov.ie).

At an early stage of this crisis, it became apparent that the impacts on economic activity were going to remain with us for much longer than originally anticipated. It also became clear that many businesses were incurring costs such as rent, rates, insurances, maintenance, security and other utilities, on an ongoing basis without the ability to generate the revenues required to meet these costs. Most of these costs are associated with the running costs of a premises, while for businesses without a fixed premises, fixed costs will likely be lower as a proportion of their total expenses.

I acknowledge that many businesses who do not trade from a commercial premises have been severely impacted and, for those individuals and businesses, Government has already moved to provide income supports in the form of the PUP and EWSS which are payable regardless of sector and are available to employees, sole traders and proprietary directors.

Where gaps have been identified, Government has moved quickly to fill those gaps and to ensure that nobody is left behind. Self-employed individuals can now earn up to €960 over an 8-week period and still remain eligible for the PUP. The Enterprise Support Grant, introduced by my colleague the Minister for Social Protection was a one-off grant introduced to reimburse certain non-rate paying businesses who had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for re-opening costs up to a maximum of €1,000.

In the 2021 Budget, the Government allocated significant additional resources to Departments to provide help to different sectors. I would highlight the €395m provided to the Department of Transport and the €222m allocated to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

These additional monies will go towards helping businesses, including self-employed and those that are not rate paying businesses, such as through the €30m for private bus operators and the €55m for a focused business scheme for strategic tourism businesses.

The Government is very much open to proposals as to how we can help further but the Government schemes are generally designed to help meet fixed costs that cannot be avoided and it is not possible to provide compensation for loss of personal income or profits.

I and my colleagues across Government will continue to keep the range of measures under review with the goal of setting our country towards economic recovery.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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184. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the financial supports available for microbusinesses that do not pay rates to their local council but still have fixed costs to meet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16778/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Local Enterprise Offices were created as a “first-stop-shop” for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports such as training and mentoring to those wishing to start or grow their own business.

The LEOs offer direct grant aid to microenterprises, up to 10 employees, in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong export entities. Subject to certain eligibility criteria, the LEOs can provide financial assistance within four main categories, following the LEO Lifecycle of Pre-Start, Start and Grow as follows:

- Feasibility Grants (investigating the potential of a business idea)

- Priming Grants (to part-fund a start-up)

- Business Development grants for existing businesses that want to expand.

- Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters (as businesses begin exploring foreign markets)

The Trading Online Voucher Scheme offers financial assistance in the form of a Voucher of up to €2,500 in order to procure expert consultancy advice on trading on-line including website management and is delivered along with training and advice to help business trade online.

The issue of rates compliance or rates arrears has no connection to, or bearing on, the awarding or drawing down of grant aid from a LEO.

The Enterprise Support Grant, administered through the Department of Social Protection, assist’s self-employed recipients who are exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme with a once-off grant of up to €1,000 to re-start their business. The grant will be payable to self-employed micro enterprises which employ fewer than 10 people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 million and are not eligible for supports from other similar business reopening grants.

In order to assist businesses to address the challenges posed by COVID-19, the Government has put in place a comprehensive suite of supports for firms of all sizes. These supports are designed to build confidence, to further assist businesses in terms of the management of their companies and to allow them to begin looking to the future and start charting a path forward.

The Local Enterprise Offices will continue to adapt their supports to deal with the changing external environment ensuring that they are robust in their offerings to business in tackling existing and emerging economic challenges for new enterprises.