Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge some of the matters raised by the Deputy. The Government has made significant progress on the national enterprise hub, which has been established with a key focus on supporting business around training and grant applications.

More than 250 supports are available online and are readily accessible for many SMEs and businesses. The hub covers more than 29 Departments and agencies. It is a vital support for many of these businesses. I compliment the local enterprise offices and all the local authorities on the administration of the ICOB and power up schemes. They are the people on the ground who engage with the businesses and have the knowledge of how businesses are classified and in which sector. It was the first scheme of its kind to be deployed at the scale required to cover all 31 local authorities. We want to establish a future platform that the Department can administer. Our officials are working on that at the moment.

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