THE Department for the Economy (DfE) is seeking £87 million for Covid-19 economic interventions, a senior official has said.
The department’s permanent secretary Mike Brennan revealed the figure during a ministerial briefing to Stormont’s economy committee on Wednesday.
The funding, spread across 27 bids to the Department of Finance, was described as part of the DfE "recovery and revitalisation" phase in its response to the economic impact of the pandemic.
Economy Minister Diane Dodds listed a number of areas where her department had tabled bids, including tourism, energy, research and development and the creative industries.
She again faced a number of questions over businesses still excluded from any support schemes to date.
Last week MLAs backed an Assembly motion that called for a new hardship scheme to support thousands of sole traders and micro businesses left out of other initiatives.
In a previous address to the economy committee, Mike Brennan appeared to question the longer term value of extending business grants.
“If it was only going to keep it in business for another six weeks or eight weeks as we head into more turbulent times, then you have to wonder if the resources would be better provided elsewhere,” he said.
It’s understood that following last week’s motion that DfE officials are now examining schemes in Wales and Scotland.
Diane Dodds told the economy committee that her department was obliged to return £53m in unspent grant funding to the Department for Finance.
"I had no discretion to spend it elsewhere,” she said.
In a written response to UUP MLA Steve Aiken this week, Finance Minister Conor Murphy said DfE had provided an options paper to the Executive on June 19, which listed various options for using the underspend, including schemes for sole traders.
He said bids had been received from the Department for Communities for social enterprises and another from the Department for Infrastructure to waive licence fees for the bus and taxi industries.
“I would welcome further bids targeted at sole traders and sectors that benefited little from other schemes,” he wrote.
Ms Dodds UUP MLA John Stewart, who brought last week’s motion before the Assembly, appealed to the Economy Minister to now table a bid to assist excluded businesses.
