Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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181. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will allow small businesses to transfer from the Covid restrictions support scheme to small business assistance scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19436/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I am very aware of the difficulties business owners have faced during this past year. Business owners right across the country have had to make sacrifices in order to protect their communities.

Firstly, let me outline the background to the COVID schemes, in relation to the Revenue Commissioners scheme called CRSS, this was designed by the Department of Finance to provide a well targeted support to assist those public facing businesses located in areas where public health restrictions were in place. The amount payable was based on the eligible business’s turnover for a comparative period pre-pandemic.

The SBASC was designed to provide assistance to those businesses who do not qualify for CRSS or other similar sectoral support schemes. As SBASC is being administered by the 31 Local Authorities, a requirement was that the Scheme be straightforward to administer for both applicants and administrators alike, in order to ensure a speedy payment, which is why a flat rate payment of €4,000 for Q1 was decided on.A decision on the second quarter will be made in due course.

The first quarter payment for SBASC is specifically for qualifying businesses that are not in receipt of the CRSS during that period and under the terms of the scheme it is not possible to receive both SBASC and CRSS at the same time and it is not possible to switch between schemes.

As you know, 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), Small Business Assistance Scheme for COVID (SBASC), low-cost loans, the deferral and warehousing of tax liabilities and the waiver of commercial rates.

I would urge business owners to contact their Local Enterprise Office who can signpost and advise on supports that maybe available to them.

It is important to note that the support schemes are there to help meet fixed costs that cannot be avoided and to provide basic weekly income support up to maximum of €350 per week. They are not created to provide compensation for loss of personal income above this level or compensation for loss of profits for any sector.