The ministries of Labour and Finance said on Thursday that they have initiated payments of the special one-off grant to small and very small businesses and the self-employed.

Beneficiaries of the grant are 17,500 self-employed and 25,000 businesses employing up to 50 people who have been approved for the schemes of full suspension of operations (EEA.3) or part suspension (EEA.4) or the special scheme for the self-employed (EEA.5) during the second phase of the special schemes (from April 13, 2020 until May 12, 2020).

The announcement said that the one-off grant will be paid out by cheque to businesses, which will be sent out by post at the address stated in their application and by bank transfer to the self-employed who had submitted their bank account details during earlier payments of special grants.

The amounts of the one-off grant are:

Up to 1 employee: €1,250
From 2 to 5 employees: €3,000
From 6 to 9 employees: €4,000
From 10 to 50 employees: €6,000