Louth TD says TBESS not working for business

Louth TD, Ruairí Ó Murchú has said that the government’s Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) is “not working for business” and “needs to be streamlined” in order for more firms to qualify for help with soaring electricity and heating bills.”

The scheme allows companies to claim back 40% of the increase in their electricity or gas bills and was meant to ease some of the crippling costs of electricity and gas price rises.

The Dundalk TD said that he had been speaking to a number of small business owners in Dundalk in recent weeks and they had expressed “huge frustration” with the scheme. He said the current TBESS scheme, which has seen just 18,700 businesses registered and 11,200 claims approved, despite €1.2 billion being set aside in Budget 23 for it, is “overly complex” and “rule heavy”.

Deputy Ó Murchú said the guidance notes issued by Revenue for the scheme run to around 120 pages and is “a paper quagmire’ for local businesses.

He said he had spoken to the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in Dundalk and they had produced their own “two-page explainer” on the TBESS scheme and they had foreseen the problems that businesses were going to have. He said: “Small businesses who are struggling with massive increases in their electricity rates are looking at the application form and the guidance notes and are throwing their hands up in the air in frustration about it.

“They are wondering if it is worth the botheration. There is some indication already from government that the uptake is not what they had envisaged, as the deadline has recently been extended.”

He continued, “But there remain serious problems with TBESS and access ordinary, viable businesses have to it.
“There is also a problem with the face that there is a 12-month reference period because between late September and December of 2021 wholesale energy costs were abnormally high.

“Because of this, many businesses cannot show the required 50% increase on that reference period, particularly for the first quarterly claim periods. Issues have also arisen where many companies are not connected to mains gas and therefore are automatically not eligible to apply.”

Deputy Ó Murchú added, “the government made TBESS one of the cornerstones of their budget but they need to look at the numbers applying, listen to what businesses are saying and go back to the drawing board and tweak this scheme so that those who need it most can apply in a simple and straightforward way.”

He further added, “We welcome the fact that the government has said at the weekend that they are going to review it, but the scheme needs to be simplified. At the moment, some businesses are thinking they will need an accountant, and the extra expense that entails, to make an application’.