A FALSE CLAIM that there are special government grants of €60,000 given to migrants in Ireland to start new businesses continues to spread, despite being previously debunked.

“Do you know a new migrant in Ireland can get €60k from the government to start a new business in opposition to you?” reads a post on Facebook seen more than 21,000 times since it was posted on 13 September. 

The post also features a video, aimed at “you people who love the migrants coming into the country”.

In the video, the Facebook page’s owner – sitting in the cabin of a large vehicle – tells a story about a family with a nail parlour, as well as an inherited barber that’s been in business for 40 years.

“There’s a few empty units in your town,” he says. “All of a sudden they start getting renovated and there’s painters in and decorators in.

“And, oh my God! What’s opening up? A little barbershop. And in the unit down the other end, there’s a little nail salon opening up.”

The man goes on to paint a picture of why he believes this would be bad.

“You’re sitting at home with your daughter or wife, going ‘Oh my God! This is a disaster. Like, we’re only keeping the lights on as it is. And now there’s another barbershop and another nail salon in the town.’

“Why are they opening up in this town? There isn’t enough work. There isn’t enough business.”

Aside from the claim of a government grant that only migrants get, the man in the video says, “They can claim social welfare for up to two years as a start-up business for a migrant”.

He continues, shouting at the camera: “Now, are you still sympathetic towards them? Or are you, all of a sudden, fucking pissed off and annoyed that you didn’t stand up like the rest of the fucking people when you should have.”

The claims

In the post, the man in the video says that migrants get a €60,000 grant to open up a new business.

This is an old and false claim, though it is loosely based on a real grant.

That grant, however, is not government funded, and only is awarded to social enterprises — businesses with an altruistic aim.

“The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund is funded by a private, philanthropic donor,” Rethink Ireland, the organisation in charge of the grant, told The Journal by email. “This fund did not receive any match funding from the Irish Government and is fully funded through philanthropy.”

Rethink Ireland, also known as Social Innovation Growth Fund Ireland Limited, is a charity that provides funds to the community and voluntary sectors, as well as to social enterprises.

The fund mentioned in the post is the third strand of Rethink Ireland’s Entrepreneurship Impact Fund 2023-2026 (the first two strands targeted more established social enterprises, as well as those being started by people under 25).

Worth a total of €900,000, the Minority Entrepreneurship Fund is planned to be divided between “five minority-led social enterprises, taking an entrepreneurial approach to social change” over the course of three years.

Ethnic minorities (including Irish Travellers), migrants and refugees are eligible.

“All five awardees will receive a cash grant of up to €60,000 per annum over the 3-year period and a tailored non-financial supports package,” Rethink Ireland’s website reads. “This will include supports such as strategic planning, communications planning, impact management and fundraising strategy development.”

Given that only five social enterprises are awarded these grants, it is very unlikely that they would be awarded to a barbershop and a nail salon in the same town that is too small to support such businesses.

The man also makes the claim that “they can claim social welfare for up to two years as a start-up business for a migrant”.

This appears to be a reference to the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance.

However, this scheme is not aimed at migrants, and requires that recipients be established in the country.

The allowance is open to anyone who has been getting a payment such as Jobseeker’s Benefit or Disability Allowance for at least 9 months, and who is “setting up as self-employed in a new business”.

The scheme allows grantees to keep receiving those benefits payments for the 1st year they set up a business, and at a 75% rate for the second year.

It was launched in 1993, meaning that the hypothetical nail parlour set up in the story told on Facebook would also have been eligible under the scheme.

Last year, the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme had 1,903 participants, a drop on previous years, according to a written answer in the Dáil by Dara Calleary, the Minister for Social Protection.

Discrimination

The Department of Enterprise (which is responsible for business grants), and the Department of Social Protection (which runs schemes to help unemployed people become self-employed) have previously told The Journal that they did not provide business grants that Irish people were ineligible for.

Claims that non-Irish people are discriminated against when it comes to government grants are common. In April, The Journal debunked a variation of this claim, which said that phone shops, Turkish barbers, vape shops” and all other foreign-owned businesses in the country are being funded “by the Irish taxpayer”.

The Journal has also previously debunked claims that the High Court had ruled ‘illegal immigrants should be paid €318 per week’; that the Irish government had created a grant for Ukrainians to start their own businesses; and that the government is offering tens of thousands of euro to coax Indians to live on Ireland’s small islands.

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