Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again. I will go back over the information we have. Following the dissolution of the county enterprise boards in 2014, an enhanced national assistance enterprise model was established to be delivered by local authorities on behalf of Enterprise Ireland through the local enterprise offices, LEOs. This structure has allowed the LEOs to effectively deliver national programmes that are aligned with enterprise policy and designed and overseen by the centre of excellence in Enterprise Ireland. Results from them have been immense over the past couple of years and during Covid we have certainly seen the benefits of the LEOs being able to reach a lot more companies than traditionally they would have reached. I spent the past few months visiting all the LEOs to engage with their work to see at first-hand the number of companies they were able to reach. That has been a success.

The programmes they operate promote entrepreneurship, foster start-ups, and help companies to prepare and start their export journey.

By being embedded in the local authorities, the LEOs have been able to contribute to local economic development and to our national policy objectives. The LEOs have delivered jobs growth year on year and assisted many high-potential indigenous enterprises to transition to Enterprise Ireland, to further develop their exporting ability and to increase their potential growth. The recent extension of the LEO mandate, based on the framework developed by Enterprise Ireland, will allow the LEOs to target new exporters, while providing direct grants to firms operating in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors with more than 10 employees. The LEOs also act as a first-stop shop for all businesses in signposting to Government assistance. They provide training, mentoring and consultancy programmes across a broad range of measures and some of these programmes are open to locally traded sectors.

The recently published White Paper on enterprise sets out an ambitious vision for Ireland's enterprise policy. This is to protect Ireland's strong economic position and respond to challenges and opportunities that have emerged as a result of: the pandemic; wider economic and geopolitical developments; digitalisation; and an increased urgency to decarbonise our industries. The White Paper also sets out that the LEOs will continue to enhance their advisory services for locally trading firms and productivity, particularly digitalisation and reducing the energy and carbon emissions. This will help enable Irish-based enterprise to succeed through our competitive advantage founded on sustainability, innovation and productivity, delivering rewarding jobs and livelihoods throughout the country. It is time we worked with the system that is there. It is doing a good job, and the White Paper is going to try to push that system as far as we can in order to reach those extra companies and drive the ambition we have for increased exports.

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