Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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721. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the operation to date of the Business Online voucher scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33584/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The National Digital Strategy commits to supporting 2,000 small businesses to trade online. A pilot in Dublin later this year end will target 50 companies with a view to a full scale national rollout in 2014. In developing the voucher scheme, my Department is working closely with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and a number of key industry partners.

Further details of the context and objective of the scheme have been published in the National Digital Strategy (NDS), which I launched last week. The strategy can be accessed online at Our NDS website also features a number of audio visual case studies focusing on the relevance and importance of businesses progressing to trade online. It is important to convey the message widely to business - in particular traditional businesses - that there are important opportunities available to them online, that developing an online presence need not be difficult and that there is assistance available.