Two new schemes set to help businesses with energy costs

The Government looks set to unveil two new schemes worth over a billion euro to assist businesses with rising energy costs in tomorrow’s budget.

It is understood that the first will be a €200m scheme which will be administered by Enterprise Ireland.

It will target larger energy intensive firms that are involved in exporting and manufacturing.

Under one strand, firms will be able to receive up to €2m in financial assistance.

However, it is believed they will be required to produce a business plan that will set out how they intend to manage their way through the crisis.

It will also have to detail their plans for controlling their energy costs.

The second scheme, to be known as the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS), will pay for 40% of the increase in gas and electricity that businesses are facing.

This, it is understood, will be capped at a maximum of €10,000 per month per business.

It will be backdated until September and will run until at least February of next year.

The total estimated cost of TBESS is €1 billion and it will be administered by Revenue.

Separately, it is expected that a new low-cost loan scheme, similar to the Brexit Impact Loan Scheme and Covid Credit Guarantee Scheme will also be announced.

Last week, the Tánaiste said the broad-based measures that the Government intends to introduce to help businesses with their energy bills will help tens if not hundreds of thousands of firms.

Mr Varadakar said there would be a particular focus on helping those in retail, hospitality, manufacturing and other high energy users and would be targeted at enterprises that are viable but vulnerable.

Article Source: Two new schemes set to help businesses with energy costs – Will Goodbody – RTE

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