Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of businesses that have made use of the small and medium enterprise online tool designed to assist the SME sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41436/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Government recognises that small businesses play a central role in the sustainable recovery of the Irish economy. With over €2bn of government supports available to small business in Ireland from over twenty Departments and Agencies, it is vital that SMEs can quickly access information on this range of supports available to them.

In order to improve the levels of awareness of government business supports available, in Budget 2014 the Government announced an information campaign - a cross-governmental initiative now called the Supporting SMEs campaign. Under the Supporting SMEs campaign, the Supporting SMEs Online Tool was launched in May 2014. On answering 8 simple questions, the small business will receive a list of available government supports. A significant advantage of the Online Tool is its ease of use and the co-ordinated results which cover a broad range of government departments and agencies, with updates and new supports added regularly.

In the first four months since its launch, the Supporting SMEs Online Tool had 17,000 unique visitors, an average of 135 a day and over 4,300 a month. The Supporting SMEs campaign team continues to work to increase awareness of the Online Tool.

To engage with SMEs and raise awareness of the Supporting SMEs Online Tool, members of the Supporting SMEs campaign team attend appropriate regional events throughout the year, including the National Ploughing Championships, National Womens' Enterprise Day, and the ISME National Conference.  Alongside this, an online advertising campaign to direct traffic to the Online Tool commenced in late September, and saw an increase in users of the Online Tool. The next phase of the campaign will involve the dissemination of information material to all key stakeholders to increase their awareness of the Supporting SMEs Online Tool.

The Supporting SMEs campaign team meets on a monthly basis to evaluate the impact of the campaign to date and to plan the most appropriate strategy to raise awareness of government supports available to SMEs, including their awareness of and engagement with the Supporting SMEs Online Tool.

The Supporting SMEs Online Tool is available at