Mr. Greg Swift:

As head of enterprise and economic development in Dublin City Council, I welcome the opportunity to present to the committee. I will highlight some of the supports offered through the local enterprise office, LEO, that helps to support enterprise activity in Dublin city, particularly in response to Brexit.

The local enterprise office is the State's first stop-shop for enterprise supports. As head of the LEO for Dublin city I know that the office has implemented a range of new programmes that have been designed to help and inform the start-up community about the Dublin business plan for Brexit. These programmes include the LEO Brexit SME scorecard. The scorecard has been adopted from a version of Enterprise Ireland's online tool. The scorecard is designed to encourage companies to think about the key areas of business that may be impacted by Brexit and to self-assess their level of preparedness. By completing a series of questions online, under six key business pillars, a comprehensive report is automatically generated. It serves as a prompt and as a discussion document for clients to consider as part of their planning for Brexit. The report provides companies with a benchmark of best practice against which to compare their level of preparedness and directs them to a range of supports, resources and information that are available via the local enterprise office. LEO clients can access the scorecard, which has been available since last week, atwww.localenterprise.ie.

The technical assistance for micro-enterprises grant is designed to support qualifying businesses to diversify into new export markets, enabling companies to explore and develop new market opportunities. Under this initiative, businesses can be part-funded for costs incurred in investigating and researching export markets, for example, exhibiting at trade fairs, preparing marketing materials and developing websites specifically aimed at overseas markets. The grant covers 50% of eligible costs, net of VAT, to a maximum amount of €2,500 per company.

The lean for micro programme was piloted in 2016 with 23 participating companies and with an additional budget of €800,000 from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the programme has been rolled out across the entire local enterprise office, LEO, network and the Dublin region will run a programme each quarter. The LEOs, in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, offer clients opportunities to adopt lean business principles in their organisations to increase performance and effectiveness. Lean will assist companies in addressing competitiveness issues, in building the capability of their people and in identifying issues and improving their operations, thereby increasing capacity as they improve efficiency and effectiveness. Under the programme companies can avail of group training and five half-day consultancies from a lean expert, a qualified practitioner, from an Enterprise Ireland-approved lean consultancy panel, who will work with the company to introduce lean principles, undertake a specific cost reduction project and assist the company in benchmarking performance.

The LEO innovation and investment fund is a new pilot initiative to support innovative developments in micro-enterprises by getting them investor ready and through the provision of a grant funding to assist them in implementing their development plans. The programme will initially target existing LEO clients in manufacturing or traded services sectors who wish to start, grow or develop innovative micro-businesses. Applicants for funding will apply online and some will be selected to participate in an investor-ready programme and to complete an investor-ready plan. They will then be entitled to pitch to an investor panel to secure a grant investment of up to €25,000 from their local LEO through a competitive process.

The LEOs offer mentoring programmes through which businesses can access mentors, including those on the Enterprise Ireland mentor panel. Mentors provide tailored advice, guidance and support to help accelerate growth, build management capability and address Brexit-related business challenges. The mentor programme is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owner managers who need practical and strategic one-to-one advice and guidance. The mentor contributes independent, informed observation and advice to aid decision making. All applications for mentor assistance are dealt with individually and are preceded by a business needs analysis to assess the key needs of the business and determine the most imperative mentoring objectives.

To assist the small business community in meeting the challenges of Brexit, LEOs provide a wide range of high-quality training supports, which are tailored to meet specific business requirements, including those around finance. Training initiatives designed to support owner managers to address the impacts on currency, pricing, cash flow and funding are being rolled out. In addition, export growth programmes are being delivered nationwide to provide participants with the skills and confidence to go after new sales opportunities outside Ireland.

Clients are also being signposted to Enterprise Ireland-led programmes, such as the excel at export selling workshops. The LEOs provide a confidential advisory service open to those operating a business. Businesses can access information, advice and guidance from business advisers and will be signposted to the supports most relevant to them. The Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs. In Ireland, services are delivered in a partnership between Enterprise Ireland, the 31 LEOs and the chambers of commerce in Dublin and Cork. Through the network, Irish companies have free access to Europe's largest database listing up to 10,000 new business and technology opportunities in the EU and other major global markets. Businesses are assisted to grow through tailored support, new business technology partnerships, commercial opportunities, licensing deals and partner searches for EU-funded research and development. Companies can get advice on EU funding and support to bring their innovative products and technologies to a global audience. I thank members for the opportunity to make this presentation and I will be delighted to answer any questions they may have.