Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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311. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 111 of 2 April 2025, when outstanding payments will issue in respect of applications under the 2024 scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23100/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The ICOB and Power Up grant schemes paid out over €400 million to SMEs across the country in 2024.

As I have previously outlined, the Department is aware of issues that were raised during the Power Up scheme. In particular issues raised from businesses who believe they are in the hospitality, retail or beauty sectors, but incorrectly categorised themselves during the ICOB registration process, which was the basis for the Power Up grant.

In order to address this, the Government has approved an appeals process that will give those businesses in the retail, hospitality and beauty sectors that were not eligible for ICOB and the Power Up grant because of the misclassification issue, an opportunity to register for those grants.

The reopening of the scheme is only for businesses in the retail, hospitality and beauty sectors who misclassified their business when applying for the Increased Cost of Business scheme. It will not reopen the ICOB and Power Up grant schemes for any other situation.

It is intended for this appeals process to open as soon as possible following discussions with the Local Authorities who administered both the ICOB and Power Up schemes on behalf of the Department.