Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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601. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent of funding and financial supports available for a small business with fewer than ten employees; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23291/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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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 Budget 2017, I secured an additional €4m in Capital funding for the LEOs, which brought the total Capital allocation for this year to €22.5m. The Capital funding is made available to LEO clients by way of direct grant assistance or “soft” supports such as training and mentoring.

Direct grant aid is on offer to microenterprises (10 employees or fewer) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong 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) up to €15,000, priming grants (to part-fund a start-up) up to €150,000 and business development grants (for existing businesses that want to expand) up to €150,000. (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).

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.

In addition, small businesses (with less than 10 employees) that have been trading for at least 12 months and who are not yet trading online or are doing so in a very limited way can apply to the LEOs for vouchers of up to €2,500 each under the Trading Online Voucher Scheme (TOVS).

I should also draw your attention to the ‘Supporting SMEs’ Online Tool, which is a cross-governmental initiative to help start-ups navigate the range of Government business supports for which they could be eligible. The tool is available atwww.supportingsmes.ie.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 170 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.