Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

31. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the contingency measures and supports in place and being considered to safeguard County Cork SMEs due to Brexit and Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38592/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The financial assistance which the Government is providing nationally to businesses and workers affected by the pandemic is unprecedented. The Economic Recovery Plan is a €3.5 billion stimulus to fuel the economy and help businesses to recover and rebuild. Across 2020 and 2021, €38 billion was provided to help our people and businesses cope with the pandemic.

There will be a number of changes to the current financial assistance as public health restrictions unwind. The Covid-19 Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) are being extended until the end of 2021. The commercial rates waiver will continue in its current form during the third quarter of this year. The 9% VAT rate will be extended until the 1 September 2022. Tax warehousing is being extended until the end of the year and will be interest free in 2022. A new additional, more streamlined business assistance scheme, the Business Resumption Support Scheme (BRSS) will be introduced in September 2021 for businesses with very significantly reduced turnover as a result of public health restrictions.

There is a growing take-up of the range of credit and loans available for businesses, in particular of the cheaper loan finance through MicroFinance Ireland, SBCI and the new €2 billion Credit Guarantee Scheme. The Government is investing in a range of working capital and longer-term funding options for SMEs, with strong demand for medium- and long-term finance through Credit Guarantee Scheme and Future Growth Loan Schemes, at interest rates of below 4% p.a.

For micro businesses, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices continue to offer support and guidance to entrepreneurs nationwide by providing direct grant aid to enterprises in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector. They also offer ‘soft supports’ to entrepreneurs targeted at developing entrepreneurial capability through mentoring, training and development programmes. Recently I launched buy local campaigns which are being funded through the Local Enterprise Offices and the Design and Crafts Council. These campaigns aim to raise awareness of the benefit of spending in local areas.

Overseen by my Department, nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024 are currently being developed by regional stakeholders which will identify growth opportunities, recognise vulnerabilities, and in response, strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem to enable job creation in the regions. The Regional Enterprise Plans complement and reinforce ongoing activities of the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs and the wider range of State Bodies directly involved in supporting enterprise development in the regions. The new Plans to 2024 are expected to be completed in Quarter 3 this year.

A €9 million “Ready for Customs” Grant to enable companies build Customs Clearing Capacity to help SMEs involved in exporting and importing with the UK and further afield to put in place the staff, software and IT systems to be ready for the new and evolving customs arrangements. A total of 85 companies so far in County Cork have availed of this grant worth over €1 million.

Enterprise Ireland companies employ 25,706 people in 607 plants in County Cork. Payments to Enterprise Ireland companies in County Cork between 2018 and 2020 amounted to almost €42 million. This funding is assisting companies in the County to innovate, be competitive, diversify markets and grow exports in the face of the dual challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. Under Enterprise Ireland’s Sustaining Enterprise Fund (SEF), over €21 million in funding has already been approved for both small, large and high potential start-up companies in County Cork. Other Brexit related funding approved for County Cork enterprises include over €2 million in respect of Enterprise Ireland’s “agile innovation” fund, almost €2 million from the Agency’s “market discovery fund” and almost €2 million from its strategic consultancy funds.

Under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), County Cork achieved success with a number of projects including €2.7 million approved and up to €1 million also contributed by Údarás na Gaeltachta towards developing the regional hub, Seirbhísí Forbartha Gnó (SFG). This project plans to support the creation in the region of 200 jobs, including 75 direct jobs, 75 spinouts, and 50 indirect jobs, over the duration of the Plan.

Regional and rural development will be a core part of a balanced recovery and reflecting the core focus in our Programme for Government we want to facilitate enterprise growth and job creation in every region. In that context also, my Department is leading implementation of ‘Making Remote Work’, Ireland’s National Remote Work Strategy, which highlights how remote work can facilitate workers to move to less congested urban and rural locations, resulting in more balanced regional development.