Rates cap for Increased Costs of Business Scheme grants to be lifted to €30,000
Simon Coveney, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, attends an EU trade ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday 27 November, 2023. Copyright: European Union
The Minister for Enterprise, Simon Coveney, is expected to bring details to Government today paving the way to pay up to €250m in grants to help small businesses cope with higher costs.
Under the terms being proposed businesses will receive a grant of up to €5,000 each to be paid in the New Year.
The Increased Costs of Business Scheme (ICOB) was announced as part of Budget 2024 back in October but details of how its to be implemented and when have been light to date.
Minister Coveney will bring details to Cabinet today and is expected to confirm that grants will be available to 143,000 businesses across the State, or roughly 95pc of rateable enterprises.
While the commercial rates system has been used to identify qualifying businesses the key payment under the scheme is to be structured as a grant, not a rates rebate.
Businesses that have paid up to €10,000 in rates will receive a payment equivalent to a 50pc refund.
Businesses who paid between €10,000 and €30,000 in commercial rates will receive a once-off payment of €5,000 each.
The qualifying ceiling has been raised from an initially proposed cap of €20,000 of rates paid, bringing some relatively larger SMEs into the scheme.
The total budget for the scheme is €257m.
Commenting at the time the scheme was initially announced, back in October Minister Coveney said the aim was to provide financial support to those firms which have been most impacted by additional business costs over the course of the year.
"This will also go some way to helping businesses meet the increase in the Minimum Wage to €12.70, which is obviously an important step towards the Government’s commitment to introducing a Living Wage,” he said at the time.
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