Covid-19: Grants for NI manufacturers to begin being issued

A one-off payment of £25,000 will be made automatically

Grant payments for more than 850 manufacturers will begin this week, the Department of Finance has said.

The one off £25,000 will be paid automatically.

Manufacturers with a Net Annual Value between £15,001 - £51,000 are eligible, with the scheme costing a total of £21m.

FAST Technologies in Londonderry , one of the businesses receiving money, told BBC Radio Foyle it would be used for future investment.

'Huge benefit'

"It's a huge benefit to our company. Last year was a difficult year and we saw a drop off in some of our projects," said the company's operations director Mark Higgins.

"We have been trying to reinvest and grow staff numbers so we can intercept future business that we can see coming along in 2021/2022.

"As manufacturing recovers we will need to change the way we do things and automation is the way forward for companies to grow out of the Covid issue.

"We see a big challenge in being out in the marketplace and meeting face to face with new customers.

Mr Higgins said a lot of negotiations carried out by the company were done at trade shows and meetings in Europe or further afield but with everything now being done remotely things have been "slowed down".

Stephen Kelly, Mark Higgins and Finance Minister Conor Murphy at FAST

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said the grants would protect jobs and help the sector to recover

"Manufacturing businesses are an essential part of our economy employing more than 85,000 people.

"Like many other sectors they've been adversely impacted throughout the pandemic.

"I hope this grant scheme combined with the second year of a 12 months rates holiday will support our manufacturing industry and give them the capacity to recover and grow in the time ahead."

• What support is there for my NI business?

• Applications open for £50,000 business grant

• When will business support grants stop in NI?

'Jobs are saved'

Stephen Kelly of Manufacturing NI said the grants would help the economy.

"The money is here now which is the most important thing," he said.

"We've been asking for 10 months that SME manufacturers are supported. If you look at the redundancy numbers, they've been dominated by the manufacturing community.

"It's so expensive and difficult to get into manufacturing that if you lose them now there won't be a chance for recovery so this announcement today means companies are saved and jobs are saved."