Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The importance of the hospitality sector to the Irish economy and communities in every corner of Ireland is well understood. I am acutely aware that many businesses in all sectors are facing difficulties due to the cost of doing business.

With this in mind, as part of the Budget 2024 package, and in order to help businesses with their increasing overheads, the Government announced the introduction of the Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) grant.

The ICOB was intended to aid firms with the challenge posed by increased costs and was set to benefit up to 120,531 small businesses. The scheme has closed for registrations since midnight on 1st May. The total number of registrations for the grant is 65,979. Once these registrations are verified eligible businesses will be paid the grant. Now that the scheme is closed officials will be analysing the data and deciding on the next steps.

On 5 March 2024, my Department and the Department of Social Protection published an assessment of the combined impact of proposed measures to improve working conditions in Ireland. Reflecting the findings of this assessment, there a range of measures will brought forward to assist businesses in adjusting to these increased costs as well as more generally to improve cost competitiveness of firms. These will be announced in the coming weeks.

My Department is committed to supporting SMEs and micros to access loans at affordable rates and favourable terms and conditions, such as the Growth and Sustainability Loan Scheme and Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme.

Also, Microfinance Ireland provides vital support to microenterprises by filling the lending gap in the market by lending to business that cannot obtain loans from other commercial lenders.

The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), play an extremely important role as part of a supportive ecosystem, providing their services direct to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country. They act as a ‘first stop shop’ locally providing expert advice and guidance, financial assistance, and offer a ‘signposting’ service for all government supports available to business owners throughout the country.

The LEOs provide a suite of productivity and competitiveness supports to small businesses in the areas of Lean, Green and Digital. These include the Trading Online Voucher, Green for Business, and the Energy Efficiency Grant. The ‘All in a Day’s Work’ national campaign emphasises the benefits of these supports for businesses; namely saving them time, energy and money.

The Climate Toolkit 4 Business allows SMEs get an estimate of their carbon footprint and a personalised plan to reduce it, highlighting the relevant help that is available from Government, through agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Ultimately, any responsibility for VAT lies with my colleague Mr. Michael McGrath T.D., Minister for Finance. In terms of reverting the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9%, it is important to recognise that VAT reductions, even temporary VAT reductions, do have a cost to the Exchequer. The Department of Finance and Revenue have raised significant administrative and operational concerns attached with applying different VAT rates for different sectors.