Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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64. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide by local enterprise office basis, in tabular form, the amount of grant aid paid by the LEO to client companies at the end of October 2014; the amount of training programmes run; the number of attendees; the effectiveness of LEOs to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46490/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of the amount of grant aid paid by the LEO to client companies at the end of October 2014, the number of training programmes run and the number of attendees is set out in the table below. The Deputy is asked to note that this table reflects only part of the Local Enterprise Office activity to the end of October 2014. In many cases payments are on hold pending completion by the LEO clients of the necessary financial returns, etc, and the November and early December period would traditionally see a large volume of grants being completed.Since the start of the year, over 700 projects totalling €10.86m have been approved by the 31 LEOs, which will result in jobs gains in excess of 1,000. In addition, 4,500 clients have received mentoring services to improve capability and drive growth.

The LEOs have been active in the delivery of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Programme which aims to support a new wave of young entrepreneurs. Results to date are impressive with over 1,018 completed applications received, most of whom would have undergone a training bootcamp where they would have received intensive business development training and mentoring aimed at improving their business skills.

In other areas, the Service Level Agreement entered into between Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities provided for a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to be established in Enterprise Ireland to drive the introduction of best practice across the LEO network. The CoE, in partnership with the LEO network, have made significant progress to date; for example, a Training and Staff Development Strategy has been agreed across a wide ranging programme including team development, financial appraisal, customer engagement and new social media applications, while further development areas have been identified for 2015. On average 8 training days per LEO staff member have been delivered. This strategy will contribute to the effectiveness of the Local Enterprise Offices.

The LEOs are also party to new operational protocols with key stakeholders including Micro Finance Ireland, Revenue, Department of Social Protection, the Credit Review Office, Skillsnet and Fáilte Ireland which establish structured links, increase the sharing of information, increase and maintain mutual awareness of the services and supports offered to clients through these agencies and the LEOs.

Each LEO has also developed a Local Enterprise Development Plan with associated metrics which sets out the key objectives and associated tasks and activities aimed at delivering upon those objectives. These Plans effectively establish the work agenda for the LEOs within their County each year and will ensure that the LEOs are focused on delivering enterprise support services for their clients. The CoE has commenced working with the LEOs with a view to preparing Plans for 2015.

I am satisfied that the staff in the LEOs are making huge efforts to ensure that this major reform of the enterprise support structure is implemented in a manner that is beneficial to sustainable development of the enterprise sector in their County.

Table 1: Grant aid paid by LEO to client companies and no. of LEO Training Programmes + Participants at end of October 2014