{"id":423423,"date":"2026-04-29T12:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423423\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:50:10","slug":"government-working-on-round-of-grants-for-specific-businesses-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423423\/","title":{"rendered":"Government working on \u2019round of grants\u2019 for specific businesses, Minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is working on a \u201cspecific round of grants for targeted businesses\u201d amid energy price pressures, Minister Darragh O\u2019Brien has said.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said the grants would be on the \u201cenergy side and the energy retrofitting side\u201d, as he said other measures relating to the operation of plant equipment on construction sites were \u201cbeing worked through right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Energy Minister said the financial allocation of the plant equipment measures had not yet been decided, but said the construction sector would benefit from many elements of \u20ac220 million in support schemes announced at Government Buildings on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, T\u00e1naiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris has said the Government is \u201cgoing to be able to do more in the Budget\u201d to assist people \u2013 but added he was not \u201cfixating\u201d on what tax to reduce.<\/p>\n

Harris said the Government is going to look at \u201chow we can help people with tax\u201d and \u201cthrough public-sector pay talks too\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"SimonT\u00e1naiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

While saying interventions cannot be made every single week, he said social welfare measures could not be the only answer to the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a personal income tax package. The composition of it \u2013 what you do with the USC, what you do on thresholds, what you do with rates, what you do on tax credits \u2013 they\u2019re all, as you\u2019d expect, a matter for proper to detailed discussion across Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about pressure to introduce further universal energy credits, the Tanaiste said it would be \u201cfoolish and arrogant\u201d for the Government to rule out anything \u201cright now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Newstalk, Harris also doubled down on floating possible one-off payments for switches to electric vehicles and heat pump adoption.<\/p>\n

He said he had asked the economics team in his department to look at \u201cwhat policy levels are at our disposal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether floating the measure slowed down adoption of EVs and heat pumps, Harris said: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DarraghMinister for Energy Darragh O\u2019Brien and Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

Asked if the T\u00e1naiste had spoken to him in advance of first proposing the measure, O\u2019Brien said: \u201cAll of us will look at other things that we can do to accelerate electrification and retrofitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe discussed this regularly at Cabinet committee on Infrastructure and our climate Cabinet committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien denied he was under pressure to implement the proposals \u2013 stating there had already been \u201ca substantial increase\u201d in EV registrations so far this year, adding that he had been working on \u201cpotentially other measures\u201d for those in rural areas.<\/p>\n

On heat pumps, he said grant amounts had already grown since March 1st \u2013 with an increase in applications.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien was speaking as he announced details of schemes which form part of the wider package announced for affected industries following protests earlier this month which strangled the distribution of fuel across the country.<\/p>\n

The \u20ac120 million Road Transporters Support Scheme (RTSS) for hauliers as well as bus and coach operators will initially apply for March 2026, with further payments for April and May depending on average diesel prices exceeding \u20ac1.99.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said average payment for the haulage sector over those months would be around \u20ac14,000.<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Heydon said a fuel support scheme for fishers and aquaculture will be operated separately by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

Applications can be made through an online portal, expected to open in May.<\/p>\n

The \u20ac100 million Fuel Support Scheme for farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers will cover the months of March up to the end of July and is an income support scheme aimed at those most impacted by the sudden increase in the cost of Market Gas Oil (MGO), also known as green diesel.<\/p>\n

Farmers and agricultural contractors will benefit from a support rate equivalent to approximately 20c per litre or \u20ac200 per 1,000 litres of green diesel on verified fuel usage in 2025.<\/p>\n

Under the scheme there will be one payment per applicant to cover a full five-month period rather than monthly payments.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said a fuel support scheme for fishers and aquaculture will be operated separately by Bord Iascaigh Mhara on behalf of his department, with a view to opening in May.<\/p>\n

The schemes come on top of a reduction in excise rates for fuel, the National Oil Reserves Agency levy, and the increased rate allowed under the Diesel Rebate Scheme.<\/p>\n

The Government also launched a communications campaign designed to support householders and businesses to manage their energy costs \u2013 similar to a strategy following the energy shocks arising out of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said: \u201cWhat the campaign will do is provide specific examples to people about how they can reduce energy, about when they should use energy, about looking not to use energy where they can at peak times \u2013 particularly between 5pm and 7pm and looking at off-peak hours to use things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is known by many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the campaign will also highlight supports available to people, including through retrofitting and solar PV grants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is working on a \u201cspecific round of grants for targeted businesses\u201d amid energy price pressures, Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-423423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}