AQW 28653/17-22

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 25/01/2022
Answered On Date: 01/02/2022
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy, in relation to the return of funding from Economic Recovery in the most recent monitoring rounds, what bids he has made to the Department of Finance to provide support for businesses, particularly in the hospitality industry and the creative industries, who faced limited custom after the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Answer:

Responding to a request from the Minister of Finance, some Economic Recovery Action Plan funding was returned to help address the priority pressures faced by the Executive. This is normal practice and allowed us to help the Executive provide financial support to some of the most vulnerable in our society as a result of rising fuel prices.

ERAP money was available largely down to the fact that the economy is in a much stronger position than we feared would be the case a year ago. This is down to the various financial interventions from both our national and devolved governments.

The Executive agreed that the Northern Ireland response to Omicron should be delivered through a Department of Finance (DoF) administered £40 million package of support for the hospitality sector. Therefore no bids were made by my Department to DoF to provide additional support to business as a result of the Omicron variant, although I did write to the Minister of Finance on 29th December and 22nd January requesting that he consider extending the scheme to include hotels.

On 27th January the Executive agreed to extend this support to hotels and certain sports clubs with a licensed bar or restaurant facility. Hotels will be eligible for a one-off grant between £10,000 and £20,000 depending on their rateable value with sports clubs eligible for a maximum one-off payment of £10,000.