George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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78. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development to interact with local development companies to promote the creation of a national social enterprise policy. [6714/25]

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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This question was originally submitted to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and then transferred to the Department of the Minister, Deputy Calleary. I submitted the question to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the basis of the 4,300 social enterprises that are making a significant contribution to the Irish economy. In 2021, it was €2.34 billion, with 57% of this in urban areas and 43% in rural areas. Social enterprises record a significant employment contribution, accounting for some 85,000 people in the workforce. While the social aspect of this issue is being covered and looked after, we need to look at this from a business point of view as well.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. Having just transferred from the Department of enterprise, I understand the rationale for his question. The Department of Rural and Community Development has had policy responsibility for social enterprise since the Department was established in 2017. Trading for Impact: National Social Enterprise Policy 2024-2027 was launched in July 2024. This policy was the successor to the first national social enterprise policy, which was published in 2019.

The development of Trading for Impact was carried out in partnership with the social enterprise sector to which the Deputy referred. A series of bilateral meetings were held with key stakeholders, including Departments and sectoral representative bodies and networks, which included the local development companies, and the Local Development Companies Network, LDCN, formerly known as the ILDN. There were a number of regional stakeholder events. Finally, a public consultation took place and 43 submissions were received from stakeholders.

In addition, my Department commissioned two major pieces of research to underpin the development of Trading for Impact. The first was a baseline data collation exercise on the scale and scope of social enterprise in Ireland and the second was an OECD in-depth policy review of the social enterprise and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ireland.

Trading for Impact details 57 policy actions under five key objectives. Implementation is to be informed by a stakeholder engagement group made up of key stakeholders. The membership of this group will be announced shortly. It is an area I will be very interested in working in, alongside the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer. I had many meetings with the CEO of Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, Mr. John Logue during my time at the Department of enterprise. There is massive potential here. We also need to support existing social enterprises.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister's commitment to social enterprise. He is correct to suggest the LDCN had a number of consultations throughout the county, and continues to do so. However, there is a belief among LEADER companies in particular that a more specific targeted support for social enterprise in more disadvantaged areas may be necessary. They say one of the biggest challenges facing them as social enterprises is the balance between meeting the social need - be that in the context of those employed in the enterprise or otherwise - and the business acumen required in the context of the running and operation of the business. As was put to me by a person immersed in the area of social enterprise, often the passion to fix an issue affecting one's community needs the same business passion to make it work. They are, of course, using the benefit of SICAP to bridge the gap between the social and commercial control aspects, with training and mentoring supports.

Are the Minister and his Department officials open to sitting down with social enterprises in our local development companies to look at a proposal with regard to the business running element of it?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I look forward to working with the Local Development Companies Network, which has just rebranded. This will be a key area of focus. The Deputy touched on the issue of management capability.

People have really good ideas but, unfortunately, the execution of this can often be a challenge and can often intimidate people from taking the step. I certainly want to work in that space but also in my role as Minister for Social Protection on the back to enterprise scheme to address those issues and give people the backup and scaffolding that is needed to take the jump and move from an idea to implementation, be that a social enterprise or under the back to enterprise scheme. I would like to work on this in cohesion between the Departments of Rural and Community Development and Social Protection as far as possible.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister's comments. I think he hit the nail on the head: often people who have very good ideas do not have the necessary business acumen or are afraid to put themselves forward and present a business plan. Wexford Local Development has three fabulous in-house social enterprises in Kafé Konnect, EPIC and the Little Jobs Service. Kafé Konnect is a terrific example of how people who have been left on the margins can be immersed into the area of helping themselves, working among themselves. Under the stewardship of Julie Codd in Wexford Local Development, Kafé Konnect has been a hugely successful commercial enterprise. There are many and varied benefits of this. Kafé Konnect deals with people who are recovering from addiction issues and is now running a wonderfully successful business venture. I invite the Minister to come to Wexford at some stage and view it at first hand. I will even stand him a coffee on that basis.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy need not worry; the Minister, Deputy Browne, has promised me a coffee down there any day. It sounds like a fabulous project. Those are the kinds of projects we want to see. They sound very much like community services projects which support 430 community-based organisations to provide local economic environmental services with 1,700 full-time posts and 340 manager posts, supported by the Department. Last year we published the Achieve Together social innovation coaching and mentoring programme which is co-funded under Ireland's ESF operational programme. That provides bespoke mentors and coaches to existing CSP-supported organisations for a 12-month period. That will address some of the issues that we discussed in the previous question in terms of sustainability and providing better services. That is definitely the kind of model I want to see grow. We hope to roll out the Achieve Together programme across the country and make it available to other organisations.