Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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215. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if a person (details supplied) in County Dublin will qualify for an enterprise allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44206/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I presume the Deputy is seeking information in relation to the broad range of supports that are available to micro enterprises.

The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the first-stop-shop front line service assisting in delivering business growth and jobs for the micro-enterprise sector. They pull together all the players – other Government Departments and Agencies - to support everyone with a good business idea and strengthen the enterprise sector in the local area. The LEOs are the first port of call in terms of advice, direction, training and, in certain circumstances, grant support for anyone who wishes to start or expand a business. Contact details for the LEOs are available at .

The LEOs themselves provide a range of financial and non-financial supports to help enterprises at start-up or during business expansion phases. It should be noted that the LEOs generally only grant assist enterprises in the manufacturing or internationally traded services sector, which over time can develop into strong export entities and graduate to the Enterprise Ireland portfolio. However, there are other potential supports available and the LEO staff can advise appropriately.

For example, the LEOs can advise clients about the Department of Social Protection Back to Work and the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (EA) Schemes, and the JobsPlus Scheme. The EA Schemes are aimed at encouraging people getting certain social welfare payments to become self-employed by allowing them to retain a percentage of their social welfare payment for specified periods. The JobsPlus Scheme is an incentive aimed at encouraging and rewarding employers who offer employment opportunities to the long term unemployed, with grants up to €10,000 available to qualifying employers to offset wage costs where they engage jobseekers from the Live Register.

In addition, any business can use the LEOs as a gateway to accessing finance from Micro Finance Ireland (MFI), which offers support in the form of loans of up to €25,000 to start-up, newly established or growing microenterprises employing less than 10 people with viable business propositions that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by the banks. The Fund available to MFI has a significant entrepreneurship focus and is open to anyone with a viable business proposal. Applications for the Microfinance Fund should be channelled through the local LEO. Further information can be found on .

Businesses can also access the new online search tool for SME business supports that was launched last May. The Supporting SMEs Online Tool is a cross-governmental initiative to help Irish start-ups and small businesses navigate the range of Government business supports for which they could be eligible.

By answering the eight questions in the Tool, a small business will, in one location be able to:

- Find out which of the over 80 Government business supports from 27 different Government Departments, Agencies and Initiatives are available to them;

- Obtain information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit;

- Identify their nearest Local Enterprise Office where they can discuss the outcomes of the guide further

- Download all these filtered results into a document for their further use.

The Supporting SMEs Online Tool is available at: .