Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The SME sector is the backbone of local economies throughout the country. I want to ensure SMEs are supported, and that is why I allocated an extra €5 million for our local enterprise offices in the budget. That represents an increase of 22%. We have 31 local enterprise offices, and they do great work throughout the country. They can provide grants to businesses with ten or fewer employees, but they can also provide advice and soft support to other SMEs. Sometimes that is a big help to businesses in increasing productivity, which in turn increases their competitiveness. I refer to where they receive the soft supports to improve their management skills.

Future Jobs is a new strategy being developed by my Department. I chaired a session specifically on productivity at the launch in the Aviva Stadium. We need to consider how to improve productivity among SMEs so they will be ready and able to adapt in a changing world. That will be a key focus of the Future Jobs initiative, which will be launched in early 2019.

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