Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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120. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on the operation of his Department’s Budget 2023 package to help businesses with escalating energy costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9192/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s focus in Budget 2023 is to assist citizens and businesses in dealing with the cost of living increases, particularly in relation to matters such as increased energy prices. The overall package of €11 billion being made available through the Budget, including once-off measures worth €4.1 billion, demonstrates the Government’s commitment in this matter.

As regard assisting businesses in the current crisis, Budget 2023 is funding a range of supports in areas such as taxation, energy supports etc. to help companies impacted by increased costs in the price of energy. A number of these supports are being funded through my own Department’s Vote.

Principal among these is the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS). The TBESS Scheme was launched late last year to support businesses with increases in their electricity or natural gas (energy) costs. Funding to support the Scheme is provided through my Department’s Vote, albeit the Scheme itself is administered by the Revenue Commissioners. Funding of €650 million to support the Scheme was provided to our Vote in both 2022 and 2023 to reflect the overall commitment of €1.3 billion in support for the Scheme as announced in the Budget.

As of 17th February, a total of 23,532 applications have been registered with the Revenue Commissioners. Some18,506 claims to the value of €38.32 million have been approved and payments to the value of €33.65 million have actually been paid out under the Scheme.

The Government has been closely monitoring the operation of the Scheme. The assessment of the initial period of the Scheme published late last month acknowledged that take-up had been somewhat lower than expected but that claims for assistance under the Scheme had increased and were likely to increase further in the coming weeks.

Following on from this assessment, the Government recently announced its intention to introduce a number of changes to extend the terms of the Scheme. These would include extending the end date of the scheme to 31 May 2023 with an option to further extend it to 31 July, reducing the threshold for qualification from a 50% increase in electricity or gas costs to 30% increase retrospectively from last September, increasing from 1 March the level of relief from 40% to 50% of eligible costs, subject to a monthly limit, which will also be increased from March, to €15,000 per month per trade or profession, subject to an overall cap of €45,000 where the business is carried on from more than one location. These changes require State Aid approval and engagements to secure this approval have already commenced with the EU Commission.

In terms of the scope of the Scheme, my Department is currently exploring options to extend supports to businesses who rely on Oil and LPG as their energy source and I will revert to Government on this matter as soon as possible.

Aside from the TBESS Scheme, my Department is also continuing to support the Ukraine Enterprise Crisis Scheme in 2023. The UECS scheme, which was also launched last year, provides supports to businesses of allsizes in manufacturing and internationally traded services which have been adversely impacted, including by excessive increases in energy costs due to the Russian war on Ukraine. The Scheme has two discrete streams. Stream 1 which is intended to address the impact of rising input costs on business cash flow and liquidity and Stream 2 which is focussed on the impacts on high energy intensive businesses. My Department is engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to extend the terms of the Scheme, including increasing the aid levels under the Scheme.

The Government has committed €200 million in funding to support the UECS Scheme. Since its launch late last year €3.4 million has been expended in respect of supports under the Scheme.

There is also provision in my Department’s 2023 Estimate to support the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme. This Scheme will provide up to €1.2 billion in lending to assist the liquidity needs of SMEs, farmers, fishers and small mid-caps impacted by increased energy costs as a result of the war in Ukraine. The Scheme will be available to viable businesses and will allow them to access new loans of between €10k to €1m under a broad range of credit facilities including overdrafts, working capital and term loan facilities. The €5 million in funding in our Estimate this year, will directly support the 80% guarantee to participating lenders under the Scheme.

Aside from the aforementioned measures, my Department also funds a suite of targeted Energy and Sustainability schemes, which are focussed on assisting businesses in reducing their carbon footprints thus helping to limit their reliance on carbon fuels and the impact of the increases in price of those fuels. These decarbonisation measures include the Climate Toolkit for Business, the LEOs Green for Micro, EI’s Climate Action and Innovation grants, its Green Plus, Green Start and Agile Innovation supports.

It is also the case that Government is focussed on facilitating investment in our energy system to deliver price competitiveness over the medium-term. Government is determined to deliver a diversified energy system, with significant support for energy efficiency and renewables, alongside independent regulation. In this regard the Department and its agencies, such as Enterprise Ireland, are actively engaged in building the capacity in the indigenous sector for these supply chain opportunities. The Offshore Wind industry also has a significant regional employment potential and also offers great potential to industry and the wider supply.

The measures which I have outlined above clearly shows the Government’s strong commitment to assist businesses as they grapple with the impact of increased energy costs arising from the crisis in the Ukraine. The supports provided by my Department and our Agencies have been key to ensuring that businesses have successfully emerged from other crises such as Covid -19 and I am confident that they will do so again in this current crisis.