I wish the Minister the very best in the finance Ministry and congratulate my party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. I look forward to working with them both.

Over the weekend, the Minister stated that the economy would experience a "short and shallow downturn" in the coming months that will, inevitably, impact on small and medium enterprises. What considerations is the Government making to support our SME sector in response to the choppy waters ahead?

I thank the Deputy for his good wishes. SMEs are the foundation of the economy, accounting for 99.8% of all enterprises and the majority of employment in the State. Their importance to our economy is reflected in our programme for Government commitments. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and I, as Minister for Finance, jointly chair the SME State bodies group, bringing together SME representative bodies and other stakeholders including State agencies to identify and understand current challenges businesses face. My Department also conducts the SME credit demand survey to gain insight into the experience of SMEs in the economy accessing credit.

While the responsibility for enterprise policy rests with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, one of my responsibilities as Minister for Finance is to ensure viable businesses that wish to access credit from bank and non-bank sources can do so. The credit review office and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, were established as bodies under the aegis of my Department for this purpose. The credit review office assists SMEs and farm borrowers that have had credit applications of up to €3 million refused or, indeed, an existing credit facility withdrawn or amended by the participating bank.

The SBCI provides and promotes the provision of credit to SMEs and increases the availability of appropriately priced, flexible funding to viable SMEs. It has supported lending of €3.2 billion to more than 50,000 SMEs since 2015, from all sectors of the economy and across a wide geographical spread, using a mix of low-cost liquidity and guarantees. The SBCI has a number of schemes launched and in development to support SMEs to access credit. These include the growth and sustainability loan scheme, the energy efficiency loan scheme and the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme.

In addition to the schemes launched and in development by the SBCI, a range of direct and indirect measures were introduced to support SMEs in response to the challenges posed by Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine, including the tax debt warehousing scheme and the temporary business energy support scheme, the latter of which is supporting a broad range of businesses that have experienced a significant increase in natural gas and electricity prices.

I thank the Minister. I think we are all in agreement that the supportive measures and schemes that were introduced earlier during the pandemic and within budget 2023 were a massive lifeline of vital importance to the survival of many SMEs. Nevertheless, businesses are still struggling to cope with the soaring energy costs, the rising interest rates and the broader inflationary pressures across our economy. The mood among some companies that operate in the domestic economy is not great. Revenue sheriffs will soon begin seeking up to €500 million in quarter 1 of this year and that will compound the problems of some SMEs that are struggling to cope with high fuel costs and the cost-of-living crisis. The number of insolvencies in the hospitality sector almost doubled in 2022 compared with previous years.

We face a perfect storm in the months ahead. Careful consideration must be given to prevent companies from collapsing, which would have a negative impact on our employment rate.

I ask that the Department consider these matters.

I thank Deputy Dillon and assure him that we will take on board the points he made and ensure that we carefully consider the current business environment when we examine all of these issues. I acknowledge the cost of doing business has increased because of the nature and level of inflation currently being experienced. Our response in the budget in part was the introduction of the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. I encourage businesses that have yet to register and submit a claim to now examine their eligibility to do so because, at the end of this month, people who have not applied will lose the benefit for September, as one can go back to the beginning of September until the end of January. It is important that there is an awareness of that issue and that the claims are made. As the Deputy knows, the Revenue Commissioners publish a data bank every week with the latest information on that issue. I wish to make that call here this evening as well.

I wish both of the Deputies well in the future and congratulate them on their new roles. I wish to bring to the Minister's attention, under the section of small businesses, that agriculture and farming probably make up most of the small businesses in rural Ireland. I wish to bring to the Minister's attention the transfer of bank accounts from Ulster Bank and from banks that are closing, to Permanent TSB and other banks where overdraft facilities are not being acknowledged. Farmers are running into real difficulties with banks that do not understand the nature of farming and in terms of payments that come in at certain times of the year. Farmers are now finding they are completely without overdraft facilities. When the Minister speaks about credit and credit flows being available to small businesses, absolutely and certainly, that is needed to sustain those businesses.

Are we still on Question No. 71?

Yes. Will the Minister intervene with the banks and make them aware that they were supposed to do everything possible to make that transition as smooth as possible, but farmers are now finding that they do not have the overdraft facilities they had before. They are in real difficultly around that issue.

I thank the Minister for his response and for raising the TBESS scheme. From listening to some constituents regarding its expansion, there are many sectors which have been excluded from it, one being those which do not use a main gas supply and use imported liquefied petroleum gas, LPG. They can measure their consumption and the cost. There is a certain cohort which has been excluded which should be included. Many rural pubs which use kerosene and LPG to run their businesses have also been excluded. There are, I think, over 1,500 rural pubs which were excluded from the TBESS. I ask that the Minister look at this again in the round.

I wish also to raise the issue around the 9% VAT rate. It is of vital importance for counties such as my own, County Mayo, which heavily rely on the tourism and hospitality sector, taking into account the escalating business costs and ongoing energy crisis. I ask that we be pro-active with support measures to avoid potential insolvencies going forward.

I thank An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and Deputy Conway-Walsh for her good wishes and for raising this specific issue, which I will follow up on. The most important thing is that the departure of Ulster Bank and KBC is done in an orderly manner and the interests of their customers are protected. The fact that these two banks are leaving the Irish retail market is deeply regrettable and will have implications in terms of competition and consumer choice. That said, it is beyond our control. They have made their commercial decision to leave the Irish market and we now have to make sure it is done in a way that minimises disruption and the fallout the Deputy highlighted for individual customers, including farmers. It is the subject of close scrutiny by the regulator. The Central Bank and its team are on an ongoing basis reminding both Ulster Bank and KBC of their obligations. The Deputy raised the specific issue regarding overdraft availability. I will ask that that be looked at.

Regarding Deputy Dillon's points, I am of course aware of the exclusion of certain sources of energy from the TBESS. My understanding is that it is because of concerns raised by the Revenue Commissioners at the time regarding oil, LPG and kerosene. As things stand, the scheme is due to end at the end of February. In the course of my examination of all of the issues due to arise before the end of next month, I will be looking at the operation of the TBESS scheme. Earlier this evening there was an exchange across the House on the 9% VAT rate. I was asked to put on record the costings of extending it. Extending it to the end of this year would cost €427 million.