Covid–19 Supports for SME’s

“€250m Government Restart Grant”

Upon entering phase one of the easing of Lockdown Restrictions in Ireland the Government has announced details of its new “€250m Restart Grant” to further support micro and small businesses that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The grant aims to provide support to micro and small businesses to help them with the costs associated with re-opening and re-employing workers following COVID-19 closures.

The grants will be equivalent to the rates bill of the business in 2019, with a minimum payment of €2,000 and a maximum payment of €10,000.

The grant will be available to businesses that meet the following criteria:

• Be in the Local Authorities Commercial Rates Payment System
• Business with a turnover of under €5m and employing 50 people or fewer
• Business must have been closed or have a projected reduction in turnover of at least 25% to June 2020
• Business must commit to remain open or to re-open if it was closed
• Business must declare its intention to retain employees that are on The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and to re-employ staff on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment where applicable

The Scheme is open for applications from Friday 22 May 2020 to 31 August 2020 online through the relevant local authority website.

“Covid 19 Energy Supply Suspension”

The CRU (Commission for Regulation of Utilities) has decided to implement a temporary supply suspension scheme for non-domestic customers impacted by Covid-19 restrictions. The scheme will be available from 1 May 2020 for eligible customers, for a period of 3 calendar months.

Any customer who avails of the scheme will have no energy or network charges billed for their business premises supply point for the duration that the measure are in place. In effect, the consumption for their supply point would be estimated at zero and their fixed network charges will be suspended.

This scheme does not apply to residential customers.

In order to qualify for the energy supply suspension scheme an electricity business customer must meet all of the following criteria:

• The customer is not an essential service provider, as defined by the Government in the context of Covid-19.
• The customer was trading before the 13th March 2020.
• The customer’s premises have been closed as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions and will remain closed for a continuous period from 28th March 2020 to the date the relevant Covid-19 restrictions are lifted; and
• The customer is in one of the following categories DG5 or DG6 (Low Voltage Business)

In order to qualify for the energy supply suspension scheme a gas business customer must meet all of the following criteria:

• The customer is not an essential service provider, as defined by the Government in the context of Covid-19;
• The customer was trading before the 13th March 2020.
• The customer’s premise has been closed as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions and will remain closed for a continuous period from 28th March 2020 and the date the relevant Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.
• The customer is a NDM I&C (Non-Daily Metered Industrial & Commercial) Customer.

To avail of the scheme customers will need to engage with their supplier to complete an application form.

This scheme is voluntary; suppliers are not required to offer it to their customer