Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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33. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of business incubation centres; and the amount each centre received in Exchequer funding in each of the years from 2014 to 2016, in tabular form. [38255/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland, an agency of my Department supports companies in every region of Ireland to start and scale, innovate and remain competitive in international markets, now and in the future. In order to help its clients achieve employment growth, Enterprise Ireland uses a developmental approach across all aspects of clients’ needs, including business development, sales and marketing capabilities, innovation and R&D activity, technology development, continuous competitiveness and lean improvements, leadership and management development, and access to finance. To support entrepreneurs, start-ups and early stage SMEs, Enterprise Ireland has supported the establishment of business incubation centres across the county, as detailed below:

Campus Incubation Programme

Under the Campus Incubation Programme, Enterprise Ireland funding has supported the development of a national network of business innovation centres and specialist bio-incubation facilities. Incubators now exist on every university and Institute of technology campus in the country. Such facilities are internationally recognised as an important element of public assistance for technology-intensive start-ups. These facilities are also an important driver of regional development with the majority of companies remaining in their region after they have completed their incubation period.

Campus Incubation Centres provide critical space for research-driven start-up companies and make available a wide range of support services and business mentoring. Tenant companies benefit from the research environment, being able to tap into mentors and the facilities of the host institution; the institutions benefit from having a focal point for entrepreneurial activity on campus and a commercialisation route for their research. The companies involved typically have good links with the host institution, are in hi-tech sectors and have high growth potential.

At present, there are over 359 companies in Enterprise Ireland funded incubation centres employing 1,827 people. In the period 2014 -2016, Enterprise Ireland invested €2.9 million across 4 campus incubation centres, see the following table for further details.

The Irish EU-Business and Innovation Centres (BICs)

The BICs (namely Cork BIC, Dublin BIC, South East BIC and West BIC) work in partnership with Enterprise Ireland to assess, advise, validate and progress early stage-business plans of Enterprise Ireland clients to an investor ready stage-point, with an objective of driving the number of High Potential Start-Ups approved each year by Enterprise Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place with each BIC. This provides a framework for agreement of service levels and performance management in respect of the funding administered by Enterprise Ireland (EI) on behalf of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), to the BICs located in Ireland. Funding administered to each BIC, in line with their agreed SLA over the period 2014 -2016, is presented in the following table.

Regional Accelerators

Accelerators can and do play a role in enhancing the start-up ecosystem nationally. The Action Plan for Jobs 2015 called on Enterprise Ireland to increase the level of start-up support in Ireland with one of the associated actions being a scheme to support commercially managed accelerators. In 2015 Enterprise Ireland launched the 2015 -2017 Accelerator Development Scheme. The objective of this call was to increase the number of accelerators operating in the Irish market to support entrepreneurship, company creation and job creation in new manufacturing and Internationally Traded Services companies in Ireland. The first call under this Scheme, with a budget of up to €3 million to leverage private investment, was open to applications via a competitive process for accelerators in regions outside Dublin. In 2017, Enterprise Ireland announced funding to the following accelerators:

- Propeller Shannon start-up accelerator:The Propeller Shannon start-up accelerator, a partnership between Shannon Group’s International Aviation Services Centre (IASC), DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs, Boeing, and Datalex, and supported by Enterprise Ireland, aims to drive the development of innovative Irish and international start-up companies in the aviation sector.

- NDRC at Porter Shed Accelerator: This accelerator will provide intensive commercial support and expert mentoring to high potential startup businesses with a digital focus in the West Region.

Additional regional accelerators will be announced by Enterprise Ireland in due course.