£10k grant support for small businesses delivered months ahead of schedule: Dodds
A GRANT supporting thousands of small businesses hit by the coronavirus shutdown is being delivered months ahead of normal, the DUP Economy Minister has claimed.
A £10,000 cash boost per eligible firm will help stabilise 27,000 businesses and is intended to save the economy from longterm collapse.
Minister Diane Dodds said officials would use the ratings property tax system for the multi-million pound initiative.
She said: “The administration of a scheme involving payments of £370m was never going to be a straightforward exercise.
“We are endeavouring to deliver in days something which in normal circumstances would take months to put in place.
“In making this operational we are ahead of where counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales are at this point.”
The Government will pay a £10,000 grant for small businesses and a grant of £25,000 to companies in hospitality, tourism and retail sectors.
Payments will be made directly into the bank accounts of businesses affected by disruption.
Mrs Dodds added: “Currently, Land and Property Services only hold bank details for just over 9,000 of small businesses who qualify and obviously payment can be expedited to those companies.”
An online web portal will be set up this week for remaining eligible businesses to register.
Mrs Dodds added: “Our immediate focus has been on putting in place a system for processing the £10,000 grant.
“I can assure colleagues that we are also working hard to put in place processes for the £25,000 grant for our hospitality, tourism and retail sectors.” by profession, said he has been made aware of teenagers and young people deliberately coughing into A Fianna Fail TD has called for the faces of others and spitting legal action to be taken against at them in a bid to intimidate and people joking about having frighten them. coronavirus while deliberately The challenge involves young coughing into others’ faces. people filming themselves coughing
Kildare North TD James into others’ faces and posting it Lawless said “thugs” are taking on social media app Tiktok. videos of themselves coughing Mr Lawless said: “This really is into people’s faces and posting too serious to be explained away them online as part of the socalled with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude. Corona Challenge. “People are desperately
He said it is a serious offence to frightened of these thugs who are cause another person to believe laughing and jeering about having they have become infected with Covid-19 while coughing directly a disease. Mr Lawless, a barrister into people’s faces — it’s disgusting. There are grounds for this in the statute books. Under Section 6 of the Non-fatal Offences Against The Person Act 1997, it is an offence to spray, pour or put on to a person blood or any fluid or substance resembling blood, leading a person to believe that they have become infected with disease as a result. Section 1 makes specific reference to contaminated fluid and Section 2 covers the intentional or reckless application of force in liquid form.
“It’s unfortunate that we would even need to remind people that by carrying out these reprehensible acts they could actually be convicted of a very serious crime.”