Business Supports
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-13
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Tony McCormack (FF), Offaly

While Ireland's balance sheet looks good on paper and the country is doing well at the moment, some small- and medium-sized businesses, including in retail, are anxious. They are doing their best to keep their doors open, but margins are tight. All the schemes the Minister of State mentioned need a bit of investment from the businesses, which is just not there at the moment. Many tell me that they are not looking for handouts, but a bit of help to steady the ship, practical supports and clearer direction. Schemes like the power-up grant the Minister of State mentioned earlier made a real difference in the past. Will he outline what fresh supports or initiatives are being considered to help small businesses invest, grow and feel confident about the year ahead, particularly in rural counties such as Offaly where SMEs are the backbone of the local communities?

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-13