Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd says he is getting a "sense from those in the small business sector of growing frustration of slowness" in getting grant money through.

He says he understands "we are reinventing the wheel, practically every week" but asks Mr Pollen if how he believes "we support businesses opening".

Image source, NI Assembly

Mr Pollen replies that most businesses are aware "their business is still locked down" and that there is "no immediate sense of that changing".

He says there are some concerns that "as far as they know, they are to pay a rates bill in June".

Mr Pollen says "the most effective intervention to keep businesses afloat is to try and get them back to work".

"So it's the economy that keeps them going rather than grant aid".

He adds that the executive has "already set up a forum to consult on this".

Image source, NI Assembly

The DUP's Gordon Dunne asks Mr Pollen for his views on the restrictions that "anyone with more than three (sites) is not eligible for any of the grants - I don't get why that is the case".

Mr Pollen says, "I entirely agree".

He says in Scotland there are "economies of scale" implemented for this issue.

"This is about trying to protect businesses and every unit or shop, whether in a group ownership or not, it is effectively a self-operating business.

"It is unwise and short sighted to rule out multiples like that," he says.

"The objective here is not about penalising success, but trying to keep as many businesses standing as possible," he adds.

"We’ve made a decision so far to do what we’ve done and I think there are lessons to be learned in this."

Mr Pollen adds it may be time to "put the hand on the tiller and change course".

The UUP's John Stewart asks Mr Pollen if his members are reporting that they have been able to access some of the grant schemes which have been offered by the department, and whether he thinks NI could adopt a scheme more similar to that in Wales.

Mr Pollen says some businesses are "still waiting" but the department has "worked at a remarkable speed" in identifying those businesses in need.

He says a "lot of people are still falling through the gaps" and that there are "two stories we’re hearing" in the FSB.

"We’re hearing from the ones who are being badly affected," he tells the committee, as well as "calls to say how the system" has worked.

"Both sides of the story are true," he says.

Image source, NI Assembly

In terms of the Welsh economic resilience fund he says, "the grass always seems greener".

"There is a lot of attractive initiatives rolled out in Scotland and Wales," he says, and that "we’re looking at those to try and learn lessons".

Mr Pollen says it's important to see "what gaps there are".

Next up there's a presentation by Roger Pollen of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) on the impact of Covid-19.

Speaking on the phone, Mr Pollen says the FSB has "real concern" about members in the social enterprise sector as they have been affected by restrictions imposed by government but "no significant assistance has been forthcoming".

He says the members will be familiar with the effects of Covid-19 on high profile sectors such as retail, hospitality, tourism and manufacturing but there is also a wide spectrum of other less prominent sectors.

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These include health businesses such as physiotherapists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists and dentists whose business has been "stopped in its tracks".

He says the FSB has been trying to look at need that hasn't been responded to, including businesses that share premises.

"We must continue to identify need and close the gaps," Mr Pollen says.

He calls on ministers to act with speed and expresses some concern about the cut-off points being set for financial support.

Image source, NI Assembly

DUP MLA Gordon Dunne says while the £25,000 hardship fund has been opened to groups in the leisure sector, he says in many cases "it does not fit" them.

He asks the minister to "look at criteria for sports clubs and such activities".

Mrs Dodds replies that including leisure in the grant scheme was "hard-fought and won in my department".

She adds that some of those Mr Dunne mentioned in that sector fall "beyond the scope of the £25k scheme".

The minister says she believes "rates relief is one of the biggest ways we can impact on those areas very, very quickly".

The UUP's John Stewart says the social enterprise sector will be disappointed that there has been no announcement of financial support.

"They have been excluded from all support to date," he says.

On a wider note, he says he's concerned about how subjective the definition of hardship can be.

Mr Stewart wants to know if there will be an appeal mechanism for businesses whose applications for the hardship fund are turned down.

He's also concerned that sports clubs are missing out on support.

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The minister says she has dealt with the social enterprise question elsewhere.

She says considerable numbers of sports clubs will have benefited from the bigger £25,000 support scheme.

Mrs Dodds says says there will be a "mop up exercise to see what sectors have missed out".

Sinead McLaughlin of the SDLP asks the minister about city deals and the "sign-off for the medical school" (the proposed medical school on Ulster University's Magee campus in Londonderry) which she says needs to be "done in the next 30 days".

Mrs Dodds says the "four city deals are in various stages of development," adding "there is not one of them at the same space".

She says of the Belfast regional deal, "heads of terms for it were signed on 19 March" which means it is "now in a business case development phase".

She says of the north-west, it is "still being worked on" and hopes there will be "heads of terms, perhaps in May - June for that".

In terms of "the mid south-west" she says there is a "growth deal there" and that a "lot of work" has gone into this with part of the work coming "organically from local communities".

Image source, NI Assembly

In terms of Causeway Coast and Glens, Mrs Dodds says it "still has had limited progress but we will continue to work with the council there to make sure that is progressed".

She says there is a need to "ensure that the projects are financially sustainable and that they reflect regional balance," and "must represent value for money".

"I as the minister, I am absolutely committed to city deals," she says.

Referring to the Magee medical school, the minister says that issue lies with the Department for Health, adding she will continue to "support the Magee in very way we can".

Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd wants to know about the student hardship fund.

"Has your department identified any savings to add to the pot for the student hardship fund?" he asks.

Mrs Dodds confirms that she has sent a paper to the executive on the fund.

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She says that if its recommendations are accepted there will be "significant extra funds" for student hardship.

She says that the third semester hardship fund for students "is alive and students should avail of it as we speak".

She has her department has already made funds available for students who are doing PhDs and research and would appeal to other departments to make funds available for student hardship.

The DUP's Gary Middleton asks the minister, his party colleague, about support for airports - which he says are "key in terms of tourism industry and businesses".

"When can we expect such a package given that airports are struggling," he asks.

Diane Dodds replies that this is an area where there is "a lot of work" ongoing.

"We have suffered greatly in Northern Ireland because of the loss of connectivity to our main market in GB.

"That has been very, very regrettable," she adds.

The minister says she was in America at the beginning of March and spoke to airline representatives about direct flights to, and from, Northern Ireland.

"That was only a few weeks ago," she says, adding, "it feels like everything has changed utterly in a few weeks time".

Image source, NI Assembly

Mrs Dodds says "connectivity in the UK is massively important" and says Belfast City Airport is "has one direct flight to Heathrow per day," while there are no direct flights to Belfast International.

It is instead "operating its freight division" to deliver "crucial supplies".

She says of the City of Derry airport, "we continue and will continue to support the PSO route" and that she hopes "there will be an announcement on these issues fairly soon".

Independent MLA Claire Sugden asks about further support for businesses that are finding the £10,000 "isn't stretching where it needs to in order to save their business".

She's also concerned that larger businesses are ineligible for many of the support schemes.

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The minister says the business people she has spoken to appreciate that this is "first and foremost" a health issue.

However, she says one of the concerns raised with her has been that the supports that are in place nationally are not stopped abruptly.

"We then need to discuss how locally we can produce recovery measures," Mrs Dodds adds.

Committee Chair Caoimhe Archibald begins the questions.

She welcomes the funding that has been made available to date but adds, "there is more needed".

Ms Archibald says "it’s important that we make clear, we can’t fathom a return to austerity as a price for the funds that have been made available".

She says a number of businesses have "missed out on grants to date" and asks the minister what more will be done to help those.

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The minister responds, "we started off this a number of weeks ago with trying to figure out how to get money out to companies as quickly as we could".

She says the £10,000 grant scheme which was implemented was based on one in the rest of the UK and says it has given "a lot of money out to companies quite quickly".

Mrs Dodds says the £25,000 "hardship scheme was slightly more difficult to work through" and is "currently open for applications".

"Applications came in very significantly in the first few days," she tells the committee, and says "we now have 2,700 applications for those".

She says she recognises there are a "number of people who don't fit into any of those categories" and some "businesses who fall through the cracks".

She emphasises that in her opinion, "not the opinion of the executive as yet", that she believes there should be an extension for the "period of rate relief".

Turning to the impact on the tourism industry, the minister says she will chair a first meeting of a new group on the impact of the Covid crisis next week.

"We need a plan and we need to be working on a plan," she says, adding that the group will include leaders in the tourism industry and local councils.

The Department of the Economy also has responsibility for universities, and the minister says there has been an issue with universities in England and Wales making unconditional offers to applicants on the basis that they could be losing overseas students.

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Mrs Dodds says there has been a moratorium on unconditional offers put in place in England and Wales but it runs out on 4 May, and the Westminster universities minister wants to see a UK-wide policy adopted.

"It is our position that we need to protect our universities and the young people," the minister says, adding that she will have a discussion with the universities' minister this afternoon.

On a final note, Mrs Dodds says the economic advisory group that existed "pre- the stalling of stalling of devolution" bringing together leaders of industry and business is to be revived.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds is briefing MLAs in Stormont on the impact of Covid-19.

She says it's "hard to overstate the damage Covid-19 has done to individuals and families, but also to our economy and wider stockholders in that economy".

She says we are "all dealing with uncertainty," adding, "no one will be left unscathed by this crisis".

Mrs Dodds says "right now our economy is temporarily almost shut down".

She says "to help support the economy we have been rolling out grant schemes".

The minister says last week the department announced a £25,000 grant scheme "aimed at tourism leisure, hospitality, and retail," adding that "last Friday, we paid the first of those grants out to businesses".

"We are working, and continue to work to ensure that those are paid in tranches, as soon as can verify them and that they are paid out," she says.

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In terms of the £10,000 grant scheme, she says there have been over 17,000 grants paid out, adding the scheme has "been expanded to include those businesses which have been industrially de-rated".

To those who are furloughed and have gone on maternity leave, she says: "Your maternity leave will be calculated on your full salary, not your furloughed salary."

She also says there has been "significant engagement with central government" and outlines that there is a weekly meeting, every Thursday at 13:00 BST, chaired by the chancellor.

She says it includes numerous other ministers "running huge policy areas in Westminster" and says they are "talking and listening to the voice of local governments through the devolved regions".

Sinn Féin's Caoimhe Archibald is chairing the committee.

She runs through the preliminaries and introduces Economy Minister Diane Dodds to begin her briefing on the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

Image source, NI Assembly

Welcome to Wednesday’s live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Today we have two committee sessions for you.

This morning, the Economy Committee has a briefing from the Minister for the Economy, Diane Dodds on the economic impact of Covid-19.

This afternoon the Executive Office Committee will have a briefing on Brexit issues.

The Economy Committee meeting starts at 10:00. Do stay with us.

Image source, Getty Images