Covid grants: More than £27m paid out to large businesses in NI

More than £27m in Covid-19 grant support has been paid to large-scale businesses in Northern Ireland.

New figures from the Department of Finance show that grants were paid out to more than 500 businesses.

The money is aimed at larger firms across a range of sectors with a rateable value of over £51,000.

These companies were too big to qualify for the £10,000 and £25,000 grant schemes established during the first lockdown.

The money was part of Stormont's underspend, which was at risk of being handed back to the Treasury.

'Vital to the economy'

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said businesses, including retail stores, engineering companies, caravan parks and garden centres, were set to benefit from the scheme.

"These larger businesses are a vital part of our economy, employing many people locally," he said.

One business that received grant support is the Exact Group, a precision engineering firm in Bessbrook.

It makes aircraft parts for the aerospace industry, which has been devastated by the pandemic.

"For example, if we were doing 1,000 of any product 18 months ago, that could be 100 now or it could be even less, but we still need to hold on to our key staff to make sure the quality is correct," said general manager Ronan Callan.

"This support grant will help us manage our overheads and the main part of that is to retain our key staff on site and not have them off on furlough at the minute, so that we can really be ready for when the industry takes off again."

Ronan Callan said holding onto staff was important to maintain quality

Larger shops have also been eligible for grant support, including men's clothing shop Louis Boyd in Newry.

It is a family business with five stores across Northern Ireland.

Managing director Liam Boyd said: "Bills still come in but with no income we needed something to keep us alive.

"With a bigger shop, there's bigger bills so, at the time of the first lockdown, we were a bit confused, we couldn't understand why we weren't getting the grant, with the rates we were paying we thought we deserved them and earned them.

Liam Boyd has welcomed the extra money

"Obviously the government looked at it again and did give us this grant and we did need it - to run a shop this size you still have bills coming through, insurance, lighting and heating had to be kept so all this will help," he added.