Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this question in my capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for small business. My Department and other Government agencies operate a number of programmes and schemes to assist the start-up and expansion of small businesses. My priority as Minister of State is to drive the creation of high-quality and sustainable jobs around all the regions and counties of Ireland, including Donegal.

The local enterprise office, LEO, in Donegal is the first-stop-shop for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and soft supports such as training and mentoring to anyone wishing to start or grow a business. Funded by my Department, LEO Donegal plays a critical role in supporting micro-enterprises in the start-up and expansion phases.

LEO Donegal has invested significantly in micro and small businesses by way of its core suite of supports since its establishment in 2014. Between 2014 and 2017, LEO Donegal paid out over €1.4 million in grant funding in respect of 121 projects. Clients supported with grant funding have consistently added new jobs with 100 new jobs supported in 2017 and 621 in total over the past four years. During this time, over 5,200 participants attended LEO training courses and 132 participants received mentoring. Furthermore, 211 applicants from the county entered the Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur competition since it was launched in 2014.

I secured an additional €4 million in capital funding for the 31 LEOs for 2017 to fund a range of LEO Brexit supports across the country, including Donegal. This additional funding has been maintained for 2018. These supports are aimed at strengthening the capacity of micro and small businesses to cope better with the changing external environment, especially the impacts arising from Brexit. The supports include grants to assist LEO clients in diversifying their markets, targeted training and mentoring to address Brexit-related challenges and opportunities as well as a Lean for Micro programme to help micro-enterprises to address competitive issues within their businesses by building the capability of their employees to identify problems and improve operations.

In May 2017, my Department with Enterprise Ireland launched the regional enterprise development fund, REDF, with funding of up to €60 million. The first call under this fund concluded last August with results announced on 11 December. Three projects across the north east-north west secured funding under the first call, including Donegal Digital Innovation, which will involve the creation of an innovation ecosystem in Inishowen by delivering a three-year enterprise capacity-building programme based on the peninsula's location factors, high tech skillsets and applied research potential in traditional sectors. The second call for projects under REDF opened for applications on Monday, 16 April.

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The LEOs can also assist businesses in accessing other Government supports, for example, business loans from Microfinance Ireland or trading online vouchers for businesses that want to improve their online sales.

The regional action plan for jobs, launched in the north east-north west in November 2015, is a central pillar of the Government’s ambition to create more jobs in rural areas including Donegal. Under the plan, the aim is to increase employment in the region by 10% to 15% over the period to 2020 resulting in the delivery of 28,000 jobs. A total of 12,000 more people are in employment in the Border region from quarter one of 2015 to quarter two of 2017 representing good progress towards the target of 28,000 jobs by 2020.

Finally, the action plan for rural development takes a whole-of-Government approach to the economic and social development of rural Ireland. The plan contains over 270 actions to be delivered by a range of Departments, State agencies and other bodies. The plan seeks to support sustainable communities, support enterprise and employment, optimise our rural and recreation potential, foster culture and creativity and improve rural connectivity. A key objective of the plan is to support sustainable communities through the enhancement of local services in areas such as rural schools, post offices and convenience shops.

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