Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, for coming to the House. I raise as a Commencement matter the funding schemes for community-run enterprise centres. I was in contact recently with a councillor about a community enterprise centre in his locality which received a grant from Enterprise Ireland to provide for the employment of a business manager on a full-time basis for two years. During those two years, the centre saw significant improvements in the refurbishment of its building and in the number of upskilling classes and training courses available there. However, since the funding provision ceased, the centre can only afford to hire a business manager on a part-time basis on a modest wage of €8,000 per year. The individual who is responsible for managing the business centre is a community-spirited woman who has an interest in keeping up this job even though most people would be unwilling to do it for that sum.

Community enterprise centres are important to the development of rural Ireland. The national association for community-owned enterprise centres consists of a network of 95 active community enterprise centres across the Republic. These centres are hubs of entrepreneurial activity and constantly encourage local enterprise development and engagement with the wider local community to create jobs and economic activity. A number of centres have been established in areas which suffer from low employment and many provide upskilling and training courses. There have been schemes in the past to facilitate centres, including the community enterprise initiative fund in 2015 and the community enterprise centre business development manager scheme of 2012. These schemes facilitated the development of centres significantly. Further, the Action Plan for Jobs for 2017 includes plans to invest up to €60 million between 2017 and 2020 to support enterprise and job creation nationally. While enterprise centres will be eligible to apply for this competitive funding through Enterprise Ireland, not all will be selected for such initiatives and, moreover, the schemes are time limited. As a result, when a scheme ends, centres may very well be placed back in a situation of uncertainty as in the case I have described.

I ask the Minister of State to consider allocating long-term funding to community-owned enterprise centres to allow them to hire full-time business managers to improve their efficiency in developing rural Ireland and to allow managers to continue their good work, in particular in rural areas.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I thank Senator Noone for raising the matter. As the Minister, Deputy Mary Mitchell O’Connor, is currently travelling abroad, I am taking this debate on her behalf.

My Department has supported the establishment of community enterprise centres throughout the country through Enterprise Ireland, which manages the community enterprise centre, or CEC, scheme. Since the launch of the first CEC scheme in 1989, €64 million has been approved for the development of centres across Ireland. Supported by four CEC schemes operated in 1989, 2000, 2006 and 2008, 157 centres were approved for financial support, of which 117 have been completed. These investments have supported approximately 1,300 companies employing over 6,000 people across Ireland. In 2012, a €2 million programme was launched for CEC business development managers and 46 business development managers were funded by Enterprise Ireland.

In 2015, my Department, in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, adopted a new approach to supporting job creation initiatives at local and regional level in support of the regional Acton Plan for Jobs through competitive funding schemes. As such, Enterprise Ireland launched the community enterprise initiatives fund, which focused on community-driven enterprise initiatives and ways in which all local players, public and private, could work together to maximise job creation. The fund was open to existing CECs and also to organisations or groups of organisations with innovative ideas to create jobs, promote entrepreneurship, boost innovation and enhance exports.In June 2016, €3 million was awarded for 32 projects to work together at regional level.

To continue to stimulate regional growth, as detailed in the Action Plan for Jobs 2017, the Government will provide for investment of up to €60 million between 2017 and 2020 to support collaborative approaches to boost enterprise and job creation throughout the country. As part of this commitment, Enterprise Ireland will announce a new competitive fund in the near term. This competitive funding is aimed at accelerating regional economic recovery by delivering on the potential of local and regional strengths. The key to this will be a focus on larger scale, regionally strategic projects, a competitive local and enterprise initiative call for proposals and the roll-out of the regional accelerator scheme 2015 to 2017, following the first call for expressions of interest in 2016. This competitive funding will provide community enterprise centres, as well as other enterprise players, with an opportunity to submit proposals for collaborative approaches to boost enterprise job creation across the regions.

Proposals and suggestions to make the scheme more comprehensive and run it more efficiently would be welcomed by the Department which is prepared to sit down with the Senator or interested parties and listen to any proposal. With the Minister and others, I would be delighted to talk to her, but the schemes are providing substantial employment, particularly for young entrepreneurs and in SMEs, with up to 1,300 companies employing 6,000 people. This is a small number in relative terms, but these are sustainable jobs and the number continues to increase.

Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It is welcome that proposals and ideas for the scheme and in respect of particular areas would be welcomed. The bottom line in the example I have described is that a vast number of buildings would be empty under the scheme but for the work of the business manager who is earning €8,000 a year. We can all fully acknowledge that is not an appropriate sum for the woman in question who is community oriented. In a way, the scheme is taking advantage of her. However, her services are being availed of and they are fundamental to the efficacy of the business centre. I would like to speak to the Minister of State and, perhaps, the Minister about this case with a view to having a number of these centres throughout the country, which is what the Department no doubt intends in any case.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I would be delighted to meet the Senator to discuss the issue. The availability of business space is a fundamental infrastructural requirement for businesses to establish and expand in any location. A total of 117 community enterprise centres are located throughout the country and provide low cost workspace, with an array of services which often include centralised reception, messaging and broadband facilities and so on. The Senator has raised an interesting case and either the Minister or I will sit down with her as soon as she is available. If she wants to bring the individual involved with her, we would be delighted to meet her.