Nearly 60% of all Clare businesses have availed of the government state supports provided since the start of the pandemic.
However, the take-up rate of the Wage Subsidy Scheme and Pandemic Unemployment Payment here has been lower than in most other counties.
This new CSO data covers the period from March to September, and finds that in that time 58.4% of Clare businesses were supported through either the Wage Subsidy Scheme or Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
This represents around 3,600 businesses throughout the county, but in percentage terms, only five counties – Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Roscommon and Mayo – had lower take-up rates, however.
The data shows that the take-up rate for these supports was unsurprisingly at its highest in April and May, during the first lockdown, but even in September when measures had largely been eased, 27.1% of businesses here were still availing of some support.
Service Activities, which includes hairdressers, gyms and undertakers, was the sector with the highest percentage of businesses availing of support, at just over 75%.
68% of tourism businesses availed of the PUP.
