Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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59. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the funding which is being set aside by his Department in 2022 for Covid-19 related measures which come under the remit of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52768/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Budget 2022 allocated a total of €6.8 billion to fund Covid-19 related measures next year. Of this, €2.8 billion was included in the 2022 allocations provided to Departments to ensure the continued availability of vital measures such as the EWSS. In addition, €300 million is being held in reserve specifically to deal with pressures that may emerge in Health and Education. The Budget also provided for a contingency of €2.8 billion to ensure that the Government can respond to challenges posed by any deterioration of the situation with the virus with a further €0.9 billion also held in reserve specifically to respond to risks to the labour market in the event of any significant resurgence of the virus next year.

As regards my own Department, Budget 2022 allocated a total of €898 million to fund our programmes next year. This included additional Covid funding of €17 million. This will ensure that the IDA and Enterprise Ireland can continue to fund vital projects under the Covid Products Scheme as well as providing additional backing for the Covid Credit Guarantee Scheme which is a key access to finance measure enabling businesses to secure finance at reasonable rates thereby helping them to navigate their way out of the pandemic.

In addition to the aforementioned €17 million allocated in Budget 2022, it is my intention to use some €80 million in savings from this year to ensure that commitments arising in relation to a number of my Department’s Covid Schemes can be met in 2022. The totality of almost €100 million in discrete Covid funding will ensure that business will still be able to access important Schemes such as the Sustaining Enterprise Fund and the Covid Products Scheme in 2022.

It is also my intention to engage with the Minister for Public Expenditure Reform to seek funding from the Covid Contingency Fund announced in the Budget, if required, for any further measures that might be needed by business as they continue to emerge from the pandemic in 2022. In particular, I intend to explore the possibility of expanding the suite of access to finance measures to ensure that long term lending products can be made more readily accessible by business to allow them to make the strategic investments and transformations necessitated by the impacts of the pandemic.

It should also be appreciated that aside from the aforementioned discrete Covid measures, my Department and our Agencies continue to offer a suite of core schemes and initiatives which undoubtedly will continue to be key supports for enterprise in 2022 and beyond. My Department has secured an increase of over 20% in capital funding for these core programmes in 2022.

This increase in our core funding together with the discrete allocated and contingent Covid monies announced in the Budget 2022 will allow the Department and our Agencies to build on the progress made in promoting indigenous businesses and regional development, attracting high quality FDI, and stimulating innovation as well incentivising businesses to actively embrace the transformations required by the challenges of Climate Change and Digitisation.