Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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210. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide a breakdown of the total spend from his Department to community enterprise centres, including funding to the National Association of Community Enterprise Centres, since the scheme was launched in 1989, broken down by year, and the corresponding number of jobs created; the number of persons in employment directly in CECs, including the NACEC; and the cost of this per annum from 2002 to the end of 2013. [12122/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I understand from Enterprise Ireland that since the launch of the first Community Enterprise Centre scheme in 1989, €64 million has been invested by the agency for the development of CECs across the country. To date, there have been 4 schemes and 159 centres have been approved for financial support, of which 117 have been completed.

The question posed by the Deputy regarding the breakdown of the total spend by year requires a significant volume of information to be gathered and correlated by Enterprise Ireland and it has not been possible to provide the information within the timeframe concerned. Consequently, I will provide this information, when it is provided by Enterprise Ireland, to the Deputy as soon as possible in written format.

In January 2014, the results of a survey confirmed that CECs accommodate 1,119 companies employing 4,759. 55 of these companies are Enterprise Ireland clients and 174 are clients of the CEBs. The NACEC is a network of the 117 community enterprise centre managers. Its primary role is to support and develop the interests of community enterprise centres on a national basis. Many centres were developed in areas of low employment and population, with the support of Enterprise Ireland, the CEBs, Local Development Groups and other local community organisations. I understand from Enterprise Ireland that, since 2008, they contribute €10,000 to the NACEC each year to run their operations, such as website build, bi-monthly meetings, promotion and advertising and national co-ordination of the 117 CECs.

At present, there are 46 Business Development Managers in the CEC network throughout the country, which have been supported by Enterprise Ireland under the 2012 CEC Business Development Manager Scheme. I have also been informed by Enterprise Ireland that there are 16 other managers across the network, which have not been funded by Enterprise Ireland. All of these managers are part of the National Association of Community Enterprise Centres (NACEC).

The City and County Enterprise Boards (CEBs) can only fund CECs that are already being funded by Enterprise Ireland and can only fund to a maximum of 50% of the Enterprise Ireland contribution. The detailed information sought by the Deputy is not readily available within the CEBs and its compilation, which would involve a search through over 20 years of records in each of the 35 CEBs, would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work.