WATCH: Priorities for Cork businesses in today's Budget

The Cork Business Association (CBA) has outlined what it would like to see prioritised for businesses in Cork in Budget 2022.

Speaking on behalf of the CBA, vice president Kevin Herlihy said that there are key supports for businesses going forward out of the pandemic which he would like to see included in today’s Budget.

Mr Herlihy said that from an employment, maintenance and business restoration perspective, the CBA hopes to see the extension of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) until June of 2022.

The CBA is also calling for the Debt Warehousing Scheme to be extended until the end of 2022 and for the Small Benefit Exemption Scheme to be increased from its current €500 to €1,500 per annum.

“From a growth perspective, we would like the relaxation of employers’ PRSI for all new hires and for people who are coming back into the workplace, having been on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) or on unemployment benefit during the pandemic,” he said.

The CBA also wants an extension to the 9% VAT rates right through 2022, a move the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media earlier this year recommended to the Government.

The committee recommended that the Government extend the 9% VAT rate out to 2025 to provide certainty for businesses in the hospitality and entertainment sectors with Cathaoirleach of the Committee, Deputy Niamh Smyth, saying the committee had engaged with a range of views and stakeholders within these sectors which “laid bare the extent of the harm caused by the pandemic and the measures needed to encourage and assist recovery”.

Speaking about encouraging sustainability, Mr Herlihy said that that the Government needs to come up with more green tax measures to encourage people to go green.