John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

My Department, primarily through our enterprise development agencies, funds a range of enterprise support programmes and initiatives aimed at assisting businesses to grow and maintain jobs in Ireland.

At any given time, Enterprise Ireland has approximately 3,300 active client companies. Supports to these companies include funding for exploring new opportunities; high potential start-ups; research and development; capital assets; management development; the growth fund; and innovation partnerships and the innovation voucher scheme. Funding is provided for local business infrastructure, including through the community enterprise centre scheme. In addition, Enterprise Ireland operates a number of programmes that provide direct supports to companies with the purpose of transforming research and development activity in enterprises under our strategy for science technology and innovation for the period 2007 to 2013.

IDA Ireland offers a range of grants as part of the marketing strategy of the agency to attract foreign direct investment into Ireland. The four main types of grant offered by IDA Ireland to its clients are employment grants, fixed-asset or capital grants, research and development grants and training grants.

Financial support is provided by Shannon Development to companies investing in or relocating to Shannon. In addition, the county and city enterprise boards, CEBs, support individuals, firms and community groups provided that the proposed projects have the capacity to achieve commercial viability. The CEBs deliver a series of programmes to underpin this role and provide both financial and non-financial assistance to a project promoter. The forms of financial assistance that are available, subject to certain restrictions, include capital grants, employment grants and feasibility study grants. InterTradeIreland – the North-South enterprise body — also provides business support programmes under two broad headings, namely, sales and marketing supports, and science, technology and innovation supports.

My Department funds the FÁS competency development programme, which provides financial support for the up-skilling of employed people and in particular low-skilled workers and managers of SMEs. Further enterprise supports are delivered through the national training fund, Skillnets, disability supports and through our work-life balance initiative. All these are funded through my Department.

With regard to the detailed statistical data sought by the Deputy, my Department has not been able to collate all the information in the short time since the question was tabled. In that regard, the allocation of grants to individual businesses is a day-to-day matter for the agencies themselves. However, I am arranging for the information to be collated and made available to the Deputy at the earliest possible opportunity.

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