Rose Conway-Walsh on undrawn business grants and regulatory burden

Minister, I want to ask you for an update on the Cost of Business Forum. In particular, I want to ask you why there are so many grants that haven't been drawn by small and medium businesses when they're really struggling with costs, costs in terms of VAT rates, water rates, energy costs, rent, refuse collection, all of those things. Your favourite word is evidence. There is evidence there that at the close of applications for your department's Power Up grant in November last year, there was €12 million that was left unclaimed by the hospitality and retail businesses. Can you explain that to me? My department's report on the assessment of cumulative impact on proposed measures to improve working conditions in Ireland published last year highlights that many of the recent cost increases for businesses were related to government-imposed regulatory changes. Business groups have also recently been highlighted the impact of the overall regulatory burden and the administrative burden on business. The programme for government calls for the establishment of a Cost of Business Advisory Forum and its purposes of this forum will focus particularly on the regulatory burden as well as other costs highlighted by businesses. The recent memorandum from government on the action plan for competitiveness and productivity also states that in order to address costs and so as to not duplicate existing structures, the forum should be established as a subgroup of the enterprise forum. It is proposed that the Cost of Business Advisory Forum will comprise officials from key regulatory agencies as well as representatives from the enterprise sector and social partners. The aim would be to convene the first meeting before the end of May. It is also envisaged that the forum should be output-orientated and should not just be a discussion group. This approach would see a finite number of meetings, possibly no more than eight meetings focused on individual key themes of concerns to the business community. It is proposed that the outcome of the forum will be a report for consideration by the full enterprise forum written by its chair, outlining a set of policy and administrative changes to improve the cost of burden for business, particularly small enterprises in Ireland. Minister, when you talk about simplicity or decreasing regulation, I want you to look inside government, I want you to look at what bureaucracy is stopping businesses who desperately need support from accessing support that has been advertised. The increased cost of business grant and the power-up grant schemes, they have been plagued with anomalies in the terms and conditions making it impossible for businesses to access. So what I want to ask you to do, with the Cost of Business Forum which is cited in the programme for government, engage with business representatives to provide accessible schemes which would be of use to businesses. So the over-concentration in terms of the diminution of workers' rights, you should be looking in the other direction as to why businesses cannot access what has been announced for them. Because across our cities and towns and villages, and many of them in Mayo, in our own constituencies, businesses have pulled the shutters. Businesses are really struggling right now and there is much that the government can do that they are not doing. Thank you, Deputy. I would say, from speaking to many businesses who have applied for the increased cost of business grant, iCOB 1 and iCOB 2 and also the power-up grant, it was an essential grant and has been hugely beneficial across all sectors. Indeed, the Department approved an overall budget of €257 million as part of the iCOB scheme, and indeed $246 million of that was expended in the scheme in 2024. In relation to the iCOB, and this week my colleague Minister Burke brought a memo to Cabinet in relation to the appeals process. We do understand that there were challenges around misclassification of certain sectors across retail, hospitality and the beauty industry. We have engaged with deeper in relation to how we can ensure that those businesses who are misclassified and ineligible can reapply, and we have a number of steps now to take over the coming weeks and months. Thank you Minister. I really think we need to learn in terms of the design of a lot of these schemes. The other thing I want to bring up with you, I met recently with the Alliance for Insurance Reform, and their members are extremely concerned at the Judicial Council's recommendation that awards be increased by 17 per cent. So could you confirm whether the Justice Minister will enable the Dáil to discuss this? I also want to raise with you in relation to Enterprise Ireland being precluded from working with businesses with less than 10 employees. Many of these businesses are on a contracted out basis. They're working on a different model, so modern work practices mean that businesses often contract in services such as graphic design or photography or social media support. These aren't staff of the businesses, nor do they want to be, they're freelance workers. So will you look into this with Enterprise Ireland so that they can support a greater number of businesses? We really need systems that support the models that are being used in businesses in the here and now, in order to ensure the sustainability of businesses into the future. We have to have practical and pragmatic supports and interventions for businesses. Thank you, Deputy. I think Deputy, I take some of your matters that you have raised. Indeed, the Government has made significant progress in relation to the National Enterprise Hub, which has been established with a key focus in supporting business around training but also on grant applications. There are over 250 supports online, readily accessible for many SMEs and businesses. It covers over 29 government departments and agencies. It is a really, really vital support for many of these businesses. And indeed, in relation to the scheme that was delivered for iCOB and for PowerUp, I have to compliment the LEOs and all the local authorities in relation to the administration of that scheme, because they are the people on the ground who engage with the businesses, who have the knowledge on the ground in relation to what businesses are classified in what sector. It was the first of its kind to be deployed at the scale required to cover all 31 local authorities. And indeed, we do want to establish a future platform that the Department itself can administer and I know our officials are working on that at the minute.