Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He said that the trading online voucher scheme which is being run through the local enterprise offices is a very good scheme. Having talked to people on the ground about it, my understanding of the way the matched funding works is that the business comes up with €2,500 and the LEO gives them another €2,500. However, speaking practically, a business has to have €2,500 to begin with. There is also a lot more to online business than just the website, and I am not kidding about that. The maintenance of it is also an issue. If one multiplies 3,480 by €2,500, one is left with a large sum. Has anyone done an assessment of whether the scheme is working? It is my understanding, from talking to small businesses that fall into this category that people are paying the €2,500, going on the course and getting a website, but they are then left hanging in the sense that they do not know what to do next. Although I totally get that retail businesses must adapt or die, I am not sure that we are getting bang for our buck in respect of this investment. Are we looking at the outcomes of this investment or do we just have many small businesses which have online presences but which are not actually trading online?

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