Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide a report in tabular form outlining the funding for each county and city enterprise board in 2011, 2012 and 2013 relative to the population of that area; the detail of each stream of funding utilised by each CEB; and the number of enterprises in each CEB area who received financial assistance in each area. [28706/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of the population in the functional area of each City and County Enterprise Board (CEB), the funding allocated to each Board and the number of enterprises funded by each one for the period from 2011 to 2013 are set out in Tables 1 to 3 below.The capital allocations made available to the CEBs each year during this period, and in 2014, were maintained at €18m despite serious budget pressures.

The CEBs were dissolved with effect 2014 and replaced by 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) from 15 April. LEOs are the “first stop shop” for providing information and guidance for start-ups and small business, and provide direct grant assistance and so called “soft supports” to micro enterprises employing less than 10 people.

The allocation of funding to each of the CEBs was decided by the Board of Enterprise Ireland in line with criteria agreed with my Department. The Committee took account of a number of factors, including the population statistics available from the CSO at the time, which are detailed in the Tables.

The Deputy may wish to note that, following the establishment of the LEOs, it has been agreed that initially the Budget Allocation methodology will remain unchanged as regards Capital allocations. Over time this allocation and the allocation methodology will be reviewed by my Department and Enterprise Ireland (EI) to ensure that opportunities for business development are maximised and that value for money is being secured across the LEOs. Such reviews will in the future be primarily informed by achievement of targets and performance metrics rather than a purely population based assessment. It is envisaged that a competitive element to budgetary allocation will be developed and introduced over time.

In addition to grant aid, LEOs can provide valuable advice, mentoring, training and management development supports to help grow and develop micro enterprises including those not eligible for direct grant assistance.

Table 1: 2013

Table 2: 2012

Table 3: 2011