Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to backing business and will continue to work closely with small businesses nationwide to support their growth, help them find new markets and assist them in remaining competitive and resilient. The 31 local enterprise offices, LEOs, play an extremely important role providing assistance directly to micro, small and medium-sized businesses as well as promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities. LEOs are the first-stop shop at a local level providing expert advice and guidance, financial assistance and offer a signposting service for Government supports available to businesses. It is this unique position that makes the LEOs so effective. They help businesses start and grow in every county and region, as evidenced by the year-on-year employment growth of LEO client companies. The LEOs offer grants to small businesses to enhance their productivity and improve their competitiveness, as well as to assist businesses in taking advantage of opportunities and addressing the challenges of doing business, in particular in decarbonisation and digitisation.

The Government recognises the recent challenges facing small businesses, especially in hospitality and retail, and has moved to support these sectors specifically by providing a top-up of up to €3,000 as part of the energy efficiency grant. Almost 43,000 businesses in these sectors are now in line for this change. This will help businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and overall energy costs by accelerating the adoption of low-carbon technologies or processes, and this enhanced grant for hospitality and retail is available from this week.

As the Deputy will be aware, as part of budget 2024, the Government signed off on a package of €250 million for the increased cost of business grant, which is a vital measure for small and medium-sized enterprises. Local authorities, funded through my Department, are administering the grant to qualifying businesses, including those in hospitality, on behalf of my Department and I strongly encourage hospitality businesses to take up this grant.

My Department is also developing a national enterprise hub, which will be launched shortly and will give businesses an entry point at national level to all Government supports. The national enterprise hub will include dedicated phone lines with business advisers to direct businesses to the most appropriate assistance for their needs, including for the hospitality sector.

See this speech in context