Minister tells councils to speed up payments of business support grant

Minster Peter Burke said he had a 'very firm' phone call with the County and City Management Association (CCMA). File photo: Damien Storan

Cork County Council is among a number of local authorities that were criticised by Enterprise Minister Peter Burke for failing to make any payments of a key business support grant.

Mr Burke told a meeting of the Fine Gael Parliamentary party on Wednesday night that councils had yet to pay out a single application for the Increased Cost of Business grant.

He expressed his "frustration" at the behind-closed-doors meeting at the slow pace of payments of business grants by a number of local authorities.

He told the meeting he had a "very firm" phone call with the County and City Management Association (CCMA) and then on Thursday morning he wrote to local authorities telling them to speed up the payments which are being administered by the councils on behalf of the Department of Enterprise.

It is understood that in the wake of the Minister's phone call, Cork County Council then made 90 payments.

In the Dáil on Thursday, Sinn Féin's Louise O'Reilly said 17% of businesses have had their applications approved nationally, and just 10.7% of applicants have had grant money paid to them.

"In six local authority areas, including Dublin City Council, not a single cent has been paid out to struggling businesses. Across the whole of Dublin city and county, just 157 businesses have received the ICOB grant. The situation is replicated in Kerry, Roscommon, Cork county, Wexford and Laois. 

"This is a shocking situation for a scheme which was announced six months ago and which was supposed to issue money to businesses in January," she said.

The Increased Cost of Business grant (ICOB) is part of a government Budget package of €257m that aims to give eligible businesses a once-off grant payment as a contribution towards the rising costs faced by businesses.

The grant is based on the value of the commercial rates bill received by an eligible business in 2023 and the deadline for applicants was May 1.

For qualifying businesses with a 2023 Commercial Rate bill of less than €10,000, the ICOB grant will be paid at a rate of 50% of the business’s commercial rate bill for 2023.

Cork County Council admitted it only started paying the ICOB grant to eligible businesses on Wednesday. "Cork County Council has allocated significant resources to this project to ensure businesses will receive payment in a timely manner," it said.

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