#038:The Bottom Line-Economics, Wage Subsidy Scheme, Ecommerce Specialists, Local Supports & Craft Beers online

Economist Jim Power joins John Purcell for this week's episode of The Bottom Line on KCLR. Jim discuss the retail sector and the impact the current restrictions are having on the sector with over 110,000 employees currently laid off due to the businesses being closed. Jim highlights the Excellence Ireland, Irish Retail Industry Recovery Plan and some of the points contained within which is aimed at ensuring the survival of the Retail Sector and to re-employ as many of the workers who have lost their jobs. You can read the full report at https://www.retailexcellence.ie/The Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme was announced on 24th March 2020 as one of the measures to provide financial support to workers affected by the Covid-19 crisis.  The subsidy scheme commenced from 26th March 2020 and supersedes the Employer Covid Refund Scheme. The scheme is expected to last a period of 12 weeks. During the week the Minister of Finance announced further changes to the scheme. Alan Seery of O'Neill Foley Chartered Accountants joined John for a questions and answers session on the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme https://onf.ie/ Also this week we heard from Ken Byrne Founder and CEO of Redsky Europe who are Market Access Specialists based in Kilkenny. Redsky Europe provide three main areas of services: Fulfilment, Vat Platform and International Freight. Ken spoke to John about how they have been working through the Covid-19 restrictions and how they have now developed RedSky Ireland which is aimed at assisting Irish companies and their online efforts at present. https://redskyeurope.com/ Gabrielle Carroll, Business Advisor with Local Enterprise Office Carlow spoke to John about the different approaches to helping business at the moment and had the key message for businesses which is to act now! The local enterprise office has a number of services available to business from mentoring services to online trading vouchers and various other supports. www.localenterprise.ie/carlow Seamus O'Hara CEO of Carlow Brewing Company joined John to chat about how his business has pivoted and established their online store Radical Drinks www.radicaldrinks.com With thanks to O’Neill Foley https://onf.ie/ Produced by Deirdre Dromey.To contact the show, email [email protected]