There will be a “seamless” and “easy” process for 39,000 retail and hospitality businesses to get €4,000 grants before Christmas, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke has pledged.
The hospitality sector was disappointed that the budget did not restore a lower, 9 per cent VAT rate, that had temporarily been in place for the industry.
The €170 million “Power-Up” grant to help retail and hospitality businesses was announced on Budget day and Cabinet was briefed on the scheme on Tuesday.
Mr Burke said the intention is for the mechanism for registration and payment of the grant to be ready this month and his Department is working with the Local Government Management Agency to achieve that.
He said that businesses that qualified for the previous Increased Cost of Business grant will get a link sent to them and will be able to re-register for the new scheme.
Mr Burke said: “That process will be seamless. It will be easy. It won’t be onerous and it’s very important that you can do that quickly and get that money out before Christmas.”
He added that this is “coming at a particularly important time for businesses as they go into winter months and give them a chance then to scale up for Christmas”.
Meanwhile, Mr Burke also said that a €1 million support scheme for flood-hit businesses in Co Cork is being opened with payments of up to €20,000 available to help restore them to pre-flood condition.
He said that around 37 businesses were impacted by the flooding over the weekend.
Initial payments of €5,000 will be made available through the Irish Red Cross-administered scheme with higher sums available for those businesses that have costs above that threshold.
Mr Burke said: “The critical thing is to get them back up, get them trading as quickly as possible”.