Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Mr. Declan Hughes:

No, we have kept it as it is. It is something that we are not averse to increasing, but also that a company could not get just one, but it could get a follow-on, as we have done with the trading online vouchers.

We have also had other initiatives such as the disruptive technologies innovation fund. That is €500 million and we have allocated €300 million of that so far. The key there is that there is SME involvement. We are trying to crowd in SMEs. We got four new European digital innovation hubs, which is a new initiative now that we just got approved earlier this year in manufacturing, robotics, and AI, and they will be charged with working with micro enterprises and SMEs and bringing them through.