Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the annual targets his Department, Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise office network have set for the increase in online trading by micro-businesses and small indigenous businesses for the period 2012 to 2016; and if these targets are being met. [43771/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Trading Online Voucher Scheme was launched nationally on 1 July 2014 and is a key initiative under the enterprise strand of the National Digital Strategy and the Action Plan for Jobs.The Scheme is administered by the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) on behalf of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, which has responsibility for setting appropriate annual targets under the scheme for the LEOs.

Trading Online Vouchers are activating small businesses from across a wide range of sectors including, retail, manufacturing, professional services, food, craft/design, tourism and leisure. By November 2015, some 1,500 businesses had completed, or were in the process of completing, their trading online projects. In addition, it is estimated that more than double that number of businesses have benefitted from advice and peer-to-peer support through their participation in the information sessions delivered by the LEOs. The roll out of vouchers to reach the initial target of 2,000 continues nationwide. The Government is committed to rolling out the scheme to more interested businesses, and to this end, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has allocated funding of €3 million to deliver an additional 1,000 vouchers in 2016.

In relation to Enterprise Ireland, while the agency does not have a corporate target in relation to increasing online trading by small indigenous businesses, it works with its client base to help them incorporate the opportunities presented through online trading into their business activities. Enterprise Ireland's Internet Marketing Unit is focused on helping export-focused across all sectors to exploit the Internet as a route to market and to assist them in developing a strategy that will shape how they do business online.