Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be able to receive grants of up to €10,000 per month to cover their energy bills, BusinessPlus.ie understands.

It was confirmed last night that a windfall tax on energy companies' massive profits will not be announced as part of the budget this afternoon.

The government has continuously stated that it would consider a windfall tax on the various energy companies as part of Budget 2023.

The news comes as energy companies continue to post record profits while increasing the prices charged to ordinary customers. For instance, the ESB recorded a profit of €396m for the first six months of the year.

The government will await a meeting of EU energy ministers on Friday before announcing any such tax. However, businesses will receive significant support to deal with their energy bills as part of today's budget.

In Association with

Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister Leo Varadkar is expected to announce two new schemes this afternoon.

The first is targeted at SMEs and will be called the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS).

It is understood that this will cover 40% of the increase in electricity or gas bills, up to a maximum of €10,000 per month, per business.

The scheme will be administered by the Revenue Commissioners and will be backdated to September.

The new grant is expected to run until at least February and will then be reviewed in the springtime.

This scheme alone is expected to cost around €1 billion.

The second initiative is a €200m scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland, for larger firms involved in exporting and manufacturing.

Under one of its strands, businesses can receive up to €2m in financial aid.

However, they will have to produce a business plan that shows how they will get through the crisis and also manage to control their own energy costs.

It is understood that these two measures will also be backed up by a new low-cost loan similar to the previous Brexit and Covid loans.

As well as being included alongside businesses in the energy-price support scheme, farmers also look set to benefit from increased supports including a new beef scheme set to cost the Government about €28m.

Also set to be outlined in the budget today is a new scheme that will see farmers earn up to €1,000 for saving hay and fodder in 2023.

Agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue has also secured funding for a new initiative to help farmers deal with high fertiliser prices, including a new €8m grant-aid scheme to support the spreading of lime.