There’s still time to apply.

Cork City Council is urging eligible city businesses to sign up for the Business Restart grant, the national fund set up to help micro and small enterprises with the costs of reopening during Covid-19.

Businesses can apply to their local authority for a grant of an amount equivalent to no more than their 2019 rates bill, capped at €10,000.

To date, Cork City Council has received 2,177 applications for the grant, of which 1,061 have been approved and 531 already paid out.

A total of 604 applications are currently in the validation stage, 118 are awaiting final approval and 394 have been rejected as being ineligible.

“We are surprised at the low level of uptake of the grant, which is approximately 30% of eligible ratepayers, but it is higher than the national average uptake.” said John Hallahan, Cork City Council’s Head of Finance.

“The application process is a straightforward online process, and any queries will be dealt with by a representative of the rates department.”

The grant can be used to pay ongoing fixed costs, for replenishing stock and for measures needed to ensure employee and customer safety.

To receive the grant from Cork City Council, a business must meet the following criteria:

• Have an existing rate account with the Cork City Council;
• Have an annual turnover of less than €5 million and employ between 1 to 50 people;
• Have closed or suffered a projected 25% or more loss in turnover to the end June 2020;
• Commit to remain open or to reopen if it was closed;
• Declare the intention to retaining employees that are on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and to reemploy staff on the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment where applicable.

The closing date for applications is August 31st, 2020 and queries can be emailed to businessrestart@corkcity.ie or by calling Cork City Council’s Customer Services Unit on 021 4924000.