Small businesses can now avail of the Covid-19 restart grants, applications for which opened this week.
The €250 million Covid-19 Restart Grants scheme was announced by Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation Heather Humphreys on May 15.
It provides grants of between €2,000 and €10,000 to help small and micro businesses with the costs of reopening and reemploying staff.
Applications for restart grants opened on Friday, and can be made through the city or county council, depending on where your business is based.
In order to qualify a business must have a commercially rateable premises, or one where rates are paid on your behalf and attributable to the business premises you occupy.
Businesses must also:
- have a turnover of less than €5m and have 50 or less employees.
- have suffered a projected 25%+ loss in revenue from 1st April to 30th June 2020.
- commit to remain open or to reopen if it was closed.
- The business must also declare the intention to retain employees that are benefitting from the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).
Entities that aren’t eligible include chain stores; non-commercial entities like community or sports organisation, including charity shops and sporting premises with a bar; businesses that do not operate from commercially rateable premises; and premises that were vacant prior to the Covid-19 emergency.
“I want to ensure that eligible companies with the most immediate need to get back up-and-running receive the grant support as quickly as possible,” Minister Humphreys said.
Businesses listed in Phases 1 & 2 of the roadmap to ease Covid-19 restrictions, as well as those who have stayed open through the crisis, are being prioritised.
“Businesses know the dates on which their premises can reopen, and we want to avoid long waiting times for the grant.”
“As a result, I am urging businesses to wait until a few weeks before their business is due to reopen before submitting their application to the local authorities.”
“Staff in the local authorities will endeavour to process applications quickly, but a quick turnaround will be difficult to achieve if every business applies immediately.”
Businesses in Galway City can apply for a grant at www.galwaycity.ie/restart, and the portal for those in the county is at gccapps.galwaycoco.ie/RestartGrant.
