Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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164. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will make the enterprise support grant available to taxi drivers who have maintenance bills accruing while still in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment and earning the €960 over two months as allowed. [33740/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Enterprise Support Grant (ESG) is available to eligible self-employed recipients who close their Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and re-start their business. The closure of PUP is a precondition of the grant and provides a financial support towards the re-opening of a business. I have no plans to change this condition. 

I have recently extended the grant to make it available to those who claimed the grant in 2020 but who found themselves back on the PUP in 2021. The opportunity of a second grant, worth up to €1,000, applies to all eligible self-employed recipients who close their PUP on or after 1 June 2021, including taxi drivers when they are in a position to exit the scheme.

Almost 9,200 ESG applications have been approved since the introduction of this grant, with approximately €8.5m paid to small businesses.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.