Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

629. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to introduce a scheme to support tourist businesses with a turnover of less than €50,000 affected by the Covid-19 crisis in view that the previously announced Fáilte Ireland scheme excluded this sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18890/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The focus of the Tourism Business Continuity financial support is to support strategic tourism businesses to offset fixed costs incurred in 2020 and support them to continue operating through 2021. One of the eligibility criteria for the scheme is a minimum annual turnover of €50,000. The rationale for this threshold is based on the likelihood that, for businesses with a turnover of less than €50,000, non-payroll fixed costs will be sufficiently low to enable the owners furlough the business by availing of other state aids (namely income supports such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)), thereby enabling these businesses to re-emerge as public health restrictions ease.

While I do not propose to introduce further supports for tourism businesses in this position, I am committed to continuing support for tourism through this difficult period and to working towards reopening and recovery. As part of the National Economic Recovery Plan, Government will be outlining how we will help people return to work and further support sectors which have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. As part of that plan, along with my colleagues in Government, we will consider more targeted measures to help reboot those sectors, such as tourism, which will face particular challenges during the recovery phase when the economy reopens.