Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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176. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide, in a tabular form, the total budget allocated to each local enterprise office for 2015; the amount drawn down by each one to the end of April 2015; if he is satisfied that each office will have sufficient funding for its operations until the end of the year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19614/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Budget allocations for the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are drawn down from my Department by the Centre of Excellence in Enterprise Ireland and disbursed to the LEOs in accordance with an agreed methodology.

The total budget allocation for each individual Local Enterprise Office (LEO) for 2015 and the amount drawn down from the Local Enterprise Development Vote to the end of April 2015 by the Centre of Excellence for allocation to each LEO is set out in the table.

LEO Budget allocations 2015 and drawdowns January-April 2015

It should be noted that a further amount totalling €7,658,807 was drawn down at the end of April and will be disbursed to the LEOs by the Centre of Excellence to meet 2015 second quarter payments under Current and Capital requirements.

The Capital budget for the LEOs for 2015 is €18.5m with the increase of €3.5m acquired in 2014 being maintained. This will enable the running of the successful IBYE (Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur) competition again in 2015 – details of which I will announce next week.

In addition, as announced last Friday, a competitive fund to the value of €5m will be available over the period 2015 – 2017 to the LEOs. It will operate on a competitive basis whereby LEOs can collaborate together and/or with external Parties to develop and roll-out job creation initiatives in their local region. These initiatives will focus on clearly defined opportunities, weaknesses or business challenges impacting on micro-enterprise locally, regionally and nationally in order to grow and sustain employment and to scale micro-enterprises.

I am satisfied that the monies made available to the LEOs for Local Enterprise Development are sufficient to support their crucial role in facilitating job creation at local level throughout the country.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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177. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of full-time staff in each local enterprise office on 8 May 2015; the number of part-time staff; the locations at which vacancies exist; and when these vacancies will be filled. [19615/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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There is a total 181 staff (mixture of full time and part time) across the 31 Local Enterprise Offices. Details of individual LEO Resources are listed in the table. These resource figures are based on a recent survey of LEOs conducted by Enterprise Ireland.

The difference in staffing levels between various LEOs is due in many cases to historical reasons whereby the former CEBs had a reduced staffing complement due to the impact of the moratorium on public sector recruitment etc. and also circumstantial reasons whereby the amalgamation of two Local Authority areas such as Limerick and Tipperary has resulted in a larger LEO staff complement.

It is intended that Enterprise Ireland in conjunction with the local Authorities (through the LGMA) will conduct at more detailed analysis over coming months to analyse survey results on a LEO by LEO basis to identify LEOs where there might be pressure points in terms of skills and resources.

It should be noted that an open competition is currently underway by the Public Appointments Service to fill four Head of Enterprise posts (Clare, Louth, Meath and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown). Sanction for the filling of LEO posts is provided by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. In addition the LEO Graduate Programme is well underway with the majority of graduates in situat this stage.

LEO Resources Summary as at Q1 2015