To ask the Minister for the Economy whether the High Street Voucher Scheme will be created in a way to retain the investment in locally-owned businesses rather than multinational chains whose headquarters are based outside Northern Ireland.

The delivery of a Northern Ireland wide High Street Stimulus Scheme will inject £95m into our local economy. The multiplier effect of this innovative scheme – from people spending more than the value of the card and the ripple effects from purchases – will deliver even greater economic benefits and make a significant step to kick-starting our recovery.

The scheme will provide individuals with a prepaid card to be spent at ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses including retail, restaurants and hotels before the end of March 2021. It will not be available for online sales.

The Department for the Economy has been provided with a financial allocation and has a clear policy objective for this funding, it is now assessing how this funding can best deliver the policy intent, including the card value and how it will be delivered.

In developing the Northern Ireland High Street Stimulus scheme, the Department will implement learnings from Jersey, Malta and other jurisdictions that have rolled out similar initiatives.

It is anticipated that the scheme will to ‘go live’ in early 2021 and will be subject to public health guidance.