Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for the Economy when applications will open to support schemes for (i) company directors; (ii) wet pubs; (iii) tourism and hospitality; and (iv) bed and breakfasts. [Priority Written]
Minister for the Economy: Applications for the Limited Company Director’s Support Scheme opened at 6pm on Thursday 21 January 2021. It will close to applications at 6pm on Thursday 18 February 2021.
There is no requirement to make an application for the Wet Pubs Business Support Scheme. The Department for the Economy (DfE) has worked with Land & Property Services to identify potentially eligible businesses within the ‘wet pubs’ industry. Once the payment for a business, identified as a wet pub, were verified and processed for the Department of Finance (DoF) Localised Restrictions Support Scheme, the Wet Pubs Business Support Scheme team contacted those potentially eligible businesses via email to provide a scheme supplementary information form. Businesses are then required to declare when they were closed during the 4 July to 23 September period. It was anticipated that all emails would be issued by 22 January 2021.
The new £26.1m support scheme for large hospitality and tourism businesses impacted by coronavirus regulations was launched on 21 January 2021.
As with the Wet Pubs scheme, the Department for the Economy (DfE) will contact eligible businesses to provide an application form (with a unique application number). Once the application form has been fully completed and returned with the required supporting evidence, it will be assessed and a grant payment will issue in March.
The Bed and Breakfast, Guest House and Guest Accommodation Support Scheme opened on Thursday 28 January 2021 and will support around 900 providers to continue to deliver much needed tourist accommodation in 2021 and beyond.
ENDS
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