Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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102. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the low uptake of the temporary business energy support scheme to date; if analysis has been conducted to ascertain the reason that take-up has been so low; and the estimated number of eligible businesses that are yet to apply. [5596/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) was introduced to support qualifying businesses with increases in their electricity or natural gas costs over the winter months.

Sections 100 to 102 of Finance Act 2022 make provision for the TBESS. The scheme provides support to qualifying businesses in respect of energy costs relating to the period from 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023. The TBESS is available to eligible tax compliant businesses carrying on a trade or profession, the profits of which are chargeable to tax under Case I or Case II of Schedule D.

Qualifying businesses can claim 40% of the increase in their energy bills between the ‘claim period’, which is a calendar month falling between September 2022 and February 2023 inclusive, and the ‘reference period’, which is the corresponding calendar month in the previous year. Payments are generally subject to a monthly cap of €10,000 per trade or profession. Businesses which are eligible for TBESS can register for the scheme via Revenue’s online service and comprehensive guidelines on the operation of the scheme are available on the Revenue website.

The scheme has, to date, seen a relatively lower level of uptake than would have been initially expected. That being said, it is important to note that the scheme it only opened for claims in early December. In addition, depending on the billing cycles which apply businesses may be waiting for relevant bills for the period or part thereof, to be issued in order that they can make a claim. Revenue has reported increased activity on Revenue’s TBESS claims portal in the past week in addition to a significant increase in the volume of phone calls to their dedicated TBESS helpline. As a result Revenue is allowing businesses additional time to submit their claims for September 2022, which should have been submitted by 31 January 2023.

The latest statistics reported by Revenue note that as of 30 January, over 21,696 businesses have registered for the TBESS and over 13,885 claims have already been approved. These approved claims have a value of €26.9 million and €20.47 million has already been paid into business bank accounts.

I would encourage all eligible businesses to register for and claim under the scheme. The government will make a decision in the coming weeks on the future of the TBESS scheme along with all the other cost of living measures that are due to expire at the end of February.