Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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471. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the programmes, further supports and initiatives for enterprise and business community that are funded under her Department; the capital, current and total 2023 budget allocation for enterprise under her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23178/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As part of our overall portfolio of schemes and services, My Department directly supports enterprise and the business community through a range of schemes. Budgetary allocations for these schemes for 2023 are listed below.

The information set out below provides further details of the schemes and supports which my Department offers to enterprise and business communities.

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme is designed to provide a monetary incentive for people who are in receipt of certain qualifying social welfare payments to develop a business while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their qualifying social welfare payment, plus secondary benefits in certain circumstances. The objective is to support certain Social Protection customers to commence self-employment through setting up a new enterprise.

Short Term Enterprise Allowance scheme (STEA) supports someone who loses their job and wants to start their own business. It provides an incentive to customers of Jobseeker's Benefit/Jobseeker's Benefit Self-Employed payment (JB/JBSE) to avail of self-employment opportunities by allowing them to retain their appropriate JB/JBSE payment rate for a maximum of 9 months. It ends when the entitlement to JB/JBSE ends (that is, at either 9 or 6 months).

Wage Subsidy Scheme - The Wage Subsidy Scheme gives financial incentives to private sector employers to employ people with a disability. The work offered must be for a minimum of 21 hours per week and the subsidy is available up to 39 hours per week.

JobsPlus - JobsPlus is designed to encourage employers and businesses to focus their recruitment efforts on those who have been out of work for long periods or on young people seeking employment. It provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers over two years, with two levels of grant payable - €7,500 or €10,000 provided that the employment is maintained. The level of payment depends on the length of time the person is unemployed and on the Live Register.

Enterprise Support Grant (ESG) - The Enterprise Support Grant (ESG) provides financial support to participants on the back to work enterprise allowance (BTWEA) or the short-term enterprise allowance (STEA). The grant aims to alleviate financial difficulties at the early stage of a new enterprise by assisting a participant on a co-funding basis with initial business start-up cost.

Reasonable Accommodation Grants - Under this scheme my Department offer a range of supports including:

- The Employee Retention Grant Scheme aims to assist employers to retain employees who acquire a disability by providing funding to Identify accommodation and / or training to enable the employee to remain in his/her current position; or re-train the employee so that s/he can take up another position within the company.

- The Job Interview Interpreter Grant. If a job seeker is deaf, hard of hearing or has a speech impairment and is attending job interviews with private sector employers, he/she can apply for funding to have a sign language interpreter, lip-speaker or other interpreter (with or without professional qualifications) attend the interviews with him/her.

- The Personal Reader Grant. This grant is available to blind or visually impaired persons who are employed in the private sector and who need to employ a Personal Reader to assist them with work related reading, which is part of their duties, but which they cannot do due to the nature of their visual impairment.

- The Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant. Where a person with a disability has been offered employment, is in employment or is self-employed and requires a more accessible workplace or adapted equipment to do the job, s/he or the employer may be able to get a grant towards the costs of adapting premises or equipment.

Supports for Graduates with Disabilities - The Department funds AHEAD (Association for Higher Education Access & Disability) to deliver the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme and the GetAHEAD Programme for third-level students and graduates with disabilities.

Disability Awareness Support Grants - The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provides funding for private sector employers to arrange and pay for disability awareness training for staff who work with a colleague who has a disability.

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) - Under the 2020 July Jobs Stimulus Package the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) from 1 September 2020.

The EWSS is administered by my Department and ceased in February 2022.

Under the EWSS scheme, employers and new firms in sectors impacted by COVID-19 whose turnover has fallen 30% get a flat-rate subsidy per week based on the number of qualifying employees on the payroll, including seasonal staff and new employees.

Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) - Revenue operated the TWSS, which was administered by my Department, from 26 March 2020 to 31 August 2020. The TWSS replaced the Employer COVID-19 Refund Scheme. It enabled employers that were affected by the pandemic to:

- give significant supports directly to their employees

- keep their employees on the payroll throughout the pandemic. This meant employers could retain links with employees for when business picked up after the crisis.

Employers who were able to do so, could make an additional payment, with each wage subsidy, to employees.

Revenue reimbursed the employer for the wage subsidy they paid to employees after receipt of the payroll submission.

The TWSS ended on 31 August 2020 and was replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) on 1 September 2020.