Sole Traders Now Eligible To Apply For Covid Business Grant

Sole traders left out of work by Covid-19 can now apply for up to a thousand euro grant from a social welfare office to help with business costs.

12 million euro has been set aside for the Enterprise Support Grant, aimed at tradespeople, taxi drivers and others who can't get the Restart grant.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys says she's aiming to keep small enterprises in business.

Interested businesses can apply through their local authority, more information available here.

Applications to Fáilte Ireland, who will administer the funding to non-rate paying B&Bs, will open over the coming weeks.

To qualify for a grant, the important criteria are:

• A business must be commercial and in the local authority rates system (apart from non-rateable B&Bs who can apply to Fáilte Ireland);
• It must have suffered a 25% loss of expected turnover between 1 April and 30 June 2020;
• It must have less than 250 employees and turnover less than €25m; 
• It must declare its intention to re-employ staff in receipt of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme