Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, Enterprise Ireland's remit has expanded from the end of last year. Until the end of last year, LEOs were only able to support and work with businesses that employed less than ten people. That figure has been increased to less than 50 people for companies that are manufacturing and exporting. If this is an exporting company, we can provide supports because it does not create potential displacement in local economies. There are companies that are not, for example, interested in moving to online trading platforms and so on, which there is grant aid support for. I accept there are some businesses that do not want to do that. They are focusing on local clients. There are areas where they can get help too; for example, energy-efficiency grants.

We now have a single portal - supportingsmes.gov.ie- where a person involved with an SME can access different areas of support such as mentoring, advice, grant aid, decarbonisation, digitalisation or other levels of supports. There is a lot more clarity there now for companies. We are going to improve that even further in terms of improved single communication so that businesses can get the information they need. There are a lot of small businesses out there that do not even know that there are supports available for them because they do not think they are in the right category or whatever. One will find that most businesses can get some support through their LEO.

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