Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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61. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will introduce a new wave of supports, beyond power-up grants, for businesses that are struggling to meet additional operational costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43330/24]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister be introducing a new wave of supports beyond the power-up grant announced on budget day to support businesses that are struggling at this time?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question. We have taken a number of steps to address the concerns of small businesses and the challenge they are facing around rising costs. The increased cost of business scheme has paid out over €244 million in this year to almost 75,000 SMEs, which includes 38,000 SMEs in retail and hospitality.

Recognising that businesses operating in retail and hospitality sectors face higher costs, we have announced a €170 million power-up grant in budget 2025. Under this grant, these retail and hospitality businesses that received a second grant under the increased cost of business scheme are in line to receive a grant of €4,000. Officials in our Department are currently working on finalising details, and the Minister, Deputy Burke, will be announcing those details later today.

The local enterprise office, LEO, policy statement outlines the centrality of all LEOs in promoting a pro-business and pro-enterprise environment in every county. They are championing local business development priorities. I acknowledge in particular that this year is their tenth year of operation. The LEOs do fantastic work nationwide. The LEOs’ lean, green and digital supports are designed to help small businesses to address some of their most challenging issues, namely, saving time, money and energy.

In May of this year, the Government agreed a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance supports for small business. As part of the SME support package, the maximum amount available under the energy-efficiency grant was increased to a maximum of €10,000 and the grant now covers 75% of project costs. This is available for any business with up to 50 employees.

We have extended the eligibility criteria for the digital for business consultancy scheme and have renamed the trading online voucher as the "grow digital voucher", providing up to €5,000 in funding towards a wide variety of digital interventions that will support businesses and help them to reduce costs. Both of these programmes are open to businesses with up to 50 employees, regardless of sector.

The Deputy will be aware that the new national enterprise hub is providing a centralised signposting service for over 230 Government supports, and we continue to be open to proposals and suggestions in this space.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. On budget day, I think the power-up grants were certainly a positive announcement. I know from talking to people in Clare County Council and constituents who have businesses that there is some cause for hope. They also feel that the last few years have loaded an awful lot on employers and people who own businesses. One the things they will say, and we have all met them in our constituency clinics, is that everything has come at them, from auto-enrolment to the minimum wage and the cost of insurance. It is all coming at them at the same time, pretty much.

The VAT 9 campaign was very much en vogue coming up to the budget, and there were many debates. It dominated much of the discourse as we approached budget day. What many people in business will also tell you, particularly in hospitality, is that it was not a silver bullet as such. It would have given them an extra margin that would have helped some people in the survival stakes but it would not have addressed the real issues. What they scream when we meet them is that they just want to know if we are now at the end of all the new measures that have come in. It just seems to be initiative after initiative, which is pretty good if you are a young employee but not much good if you are trying to hold up a business and pay all the money each week, be it the wage bill, the insurance or all of the other additional overhead costs.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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There is an acknowledgment that we have introduced a lot of initiatives in recent years and that the sequencing of them was not properly thought out with respect to costs. It was not done. We have strengthened the SME test. The Cabinet signed off on that this week. It will ensure that far more vision is given to initiatives, and that they are sequenced and streamlined.

As the Deputy knows, auto-enrolment has been postponed for a number of months to give businesses a chance to get more ready for it. We are constantly looking to see how we can assist with regard to costs. We are very frustrated that insurance costs, for instance, have not reduced in line with the work that is being done in our Department to reimagine the insurance landscape in Ireland and across Government. The action plan on insurance has delivered 95% of actions. That is not reflected in insurance costs, and we continue to highlight that.

The power-up grant will be paid before the end of this calendar year. It is a flat grant of €4,000. We absolutely recognise that it does not cover the increase in costs but it does go some way.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The legislative framework is there. We have had the budget. The budget was now a few weeks ago. I often hear from people in HR that the sick leave, in particular, is causing quite a lot of problems. One employer in County Clare provided me with a spreadsheet showing the sick leave his company has at the moment and how much it is costing. It is very worrying that you can phone some of these online doctors for appointments. One business was able to tell me that their employees can phone up, tell the doctor via a Zoom or phone call that they are unwell and cannot go in, and they will get a cert emailed to them by PDF. Once that has gone in and it is acceptable, they have to be paid sick leave for the day. I think that is wrong. Of course you get people who have flus and are feeling miserable, and who cannot work for a day, but employers are increasingly telling me that a lot of young people - as we all did in the day - go out on Friday night and are in a sad mess on Saturday morning and are unable to work. When the Minister of State and I were in that phase, in our youth, if we did not go to work, that was it. You did not get paid for it. Now that person at home is paid for the day and the business owner and his family probably have to come back in and backfill those shifts vacated by someone who is too sick to work. It is being abused, I think. There are always many good, valid cases but I think something needs to be done by regulation to tighten this up. It is absurd that someone would phone up a doctor and say they are not feeling great, be given a PDF and told to take the day off as they will get paid for it.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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We have two supplementaries before the Minister of State comes back in. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh is first.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I raise the concerns I have around the closing down of retail businesses, particularly in Mayo. The Minister of State will be very familiar with it. When I walk down American Street in Belmullet or some of the streets in Ballina, Castlebar and other areas, I see that many businesses are shut down. That speaks to me of the disconnect. We are not connecting up. The bureaucracy and red tape around various schemes often means that people cannot access them. Obviously, there is the impact of the cost of living as well. People just do not have enough money in their pockets to be able to spend, so the footfall is reduced. I do not think it is good enough just to highlight the issue of insurance. The Government has to bring in policies that are going to impact directly on insurance costs by reducing them, but it must also examine rates, which are absolutely crippling a lot of small businesses and retail businesses across Mayo.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to add my voice regarding support for the SMEs. The power-up grant is somewhat welcome but I think the blanket approach is not supportive enough for the businesses that are most in need. Maybe there was an overconcentration on the 9% rate because that was never going to be achieved, given the position of the three coalition parties' leaders on it.

Has the Minister of State had any engagement with the energy regulator with regard to the price gouging that is going on, and the high cost of energy for SMEs? Has he engaged with the Department of Finance and with Revenue on how inflexible Revenue is being with some businesses at the moment?

The Minister of State has acknowledged that it was wrong for previous Ministers to bring in all these measures at the one time. On sick pay, particularly where there are ratios required in childcare, businesses pay not only for the person who is out sick but also for the replacement person. Are there any supports that can be brought in for a scenario such as that? They must maintain ratios in nursing homes and childcare facilities, so it is a double whammy for those businesses. We need to concentrate on getting additional supports into the businesses that need it the most.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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There is lots there. The Minister, Deputy Burke, is conducting a consultation exercise on how the new sick pay changes are working. He is engaging with employers directly in that space to get their feedback. That will feed into future decisions with regard to sick pay.

On retail, I absolutely agree with the Deputy. Retailers are the backbone of our economy. They sustain not just employment but also town-centre living and local clubs. We are trying to work with retailers with regard to supports to take on the digital challenge they face. We all know that is one of the biggest challenges facing retail. We need to give retailers a chance to take that on. I have some really good examples. I encourage the Deputy to go to GrowDigital.gov.ie to see the examples of retailers that are using that digital space. We are very much interested in looking at how we can use that vacant space and put supports in to encourage retailers into that vacant space. The Deputy is right on rates. It is a really hard issue.

With regard to Revenue, the Minister, Deputy Chambers and I met with the Ballina Chamber of Commerce just two weeks ago, where this was raised. There is a very difficult attitude, and he is engaging with Revenue on working with small business and understanding where small businesses are at at the moment.

I cannot comment on the ratio but I will look into it and come back to the Deputy.