Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, the Tánaiste sends his apologies to the House. He is attending a virtual event this morning as part of local enterprise week. I attended a virtual event this morning with the LEO in Donegal, "Spring Back, Step Forward", which focused on building resilience in the companies it supports.

It is an opportune time for the Senator to raise this issue this morning. The local enterprise week is a huge opportunity for small and microenterprises to learn about the variety of programmes and initiatives that are there for them, many of which are targeted at helping companies to respond and adjust their business models as a result of the twin challenges of Covid-19 and the post-Brexit environment, as well as the global challenge of climate change.Over the next week or so local enterprise offices will host more than 200 online learning and networking events for SMEs. The "making it happen" theme focusses on key areas for small business survival, recovery, growth and opportunity. Common themes include diversification, sustainability, resilience, the green economy, competitiveness, internationalisation and digitalisation.

I am pleased to report the LEO’s "green for micro” initiative is being extended nationwide and was officially launched today to mark the start of local enterprise week. It is now a mainstream programme which is being rolled out by the LEO network nationwide and will provide small businesses with tailored expert advice on how to drive sustainability in their operations.

Sustainability is often quite a theoretical concept and many small businesses simply do not know where to start. Therefore, under this initiative, qualifying enterprises will access two days of intensive mentoring, including a sustainability audit and action plan, designed to help green the business and practical guidance on how to make businesses more sustainable. It does not just make sense from an environmental perspective, it also makes business sense. The primary objective of the green for micro programme is to help prepare small businesses for the low carbon, more resource efficient economy of the future. The programme is free to participants and is available to companies with up to ten employees, as is generally the case with LEO programmes.

Greening the economy and climate change actions give rise to economic opportunities while posing cost and other challenges for business. Many businesses will require support to make investments to decarbonise as the level of regulation increases. This programme is making a contribution towards those aims. Our enterprise agencies have integrated these objectives into their strategies and programmes. IDA Ireland has used its new strategy for 2020 to 2024 to integrate decarbonisation objectives fully across its clients and other relevant stakeholders. Enterprise Ireland will expand its green start, green plus and environmental aid programmes to a larger cohort of its clients and will have an increased emphasis on decarbonisation. Enterprise Ireland is also working towards the launch of a €10 million green enterprise fund in the coming weeks. My Department is also developing a one-stop shop online tool which will help inform and guide SMEs which wish to begin their decarbonisation journey, calculate their carbon footprint and access information on the Government programmes to assist them. This is due to be launched next July.