Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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555. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the schemes available to help a person who is in part-time employment and wishes to start their own business but retain their part-time job; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35764/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Within the remit of my Department, the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports to those wishing to start or grow their own business.

In the first instance, the LEOs provide a ‘signposting’ service in relation to all relevant state supports available through agencies such as Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, Credit Review Office, Microfinance Ireland. The LEOs can also offer advice and guidance in areas such as Local Authority rates, Public Procurement and other regulations affecting business.

The LEOs can offer direct grant aid to microenterprises (10 employees or fewer) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector which, over time, have the potential to develop into export entities. Subject to certain eligibility criteria, the LEOs can provide financial assistance within three main categories, i.e. Feasibility Grants (investigating the potential of a business idea); Priming Grants (to part-fund a start-up); and Business Development grants for existing businesses that want to expand. It should be noted that the LEOs do not provide direct grant-aid to areas such as retail, personal services, local professional services, construction/local building services, as it may give rise to the displacement of existing businesses.

In addition, for anyone interested in starting or growing a business, the LEOs may be able to offer ‘soft’ support in the form of training (e.g. a Start Your Own Business course) or provide a mentor to work with the business proposer.

Anyone with a viable business proposal can also use the LEO to make an application to MicroFinance Ireland, which offers support in the form of loans of up to €25,000 to start-ups with viable business propositions that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by the banks.

Finally, I should draw your attention to the ‘Supporting SMEs’ Online Tool (www.localenterprise.ie/smeonlinetool) which is a cross-governmental initiative to help start-ups navigate the range of Government business supports for which they could be eligible. By answering the eight questions in the Online 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.