Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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49. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she and her Department continue to encourage start up enterprises in all regions throughout the country; the issues to date identified as being likely to impede progress; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43328/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland supports companies in regional and rural areas to start, innovate and remain competitive in international markets, now and into the future.

The 5,000 manufacturing and internationally traded services companies that Enterprise Ireland works with are a critical source of existing employment and job creation in every county in Ireland. In 2016, Enterprise Ireland supported companies employed 201,108 people (173,868 FTE and 27,240 other). Within this, 19,244 new jobs were created resulting in a net gain of 9,117 jobs.

65 per cent of Enterprise Ireland client employment is outside of Dublin. 42.2 per cent of client employment is outside the five counties which are home to the five urban centres (Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Cork). 36 per cent of the net new jobs created in 2016 by Enterprise Ireland support clients were outside of this geographic region. From interactions with clients, the agency is seeing companies that are born in rural locations, creating jobs in rural areas and innovating to provide globally competitive product for international markets.

Enterprise Ireland has 10 regional offices throughout Ireland including offices in Athlone, Tralee, Letterkenny, Sligo, Shannon and Dundalk. This enables Enterprise Ireland to connect and collaborate at a local level with enterprise development partners to assist in driving the multiagency response required to encourage start-up enterprises.

Enterprise Ireland provides a range of financial and non-financial supports for start-up enterprises throughout the country, such as:

- The National Entrepreneurial Development Programme delivered in partnership with Institutes of Technology through the country.

- A Competitive Start Fund ran by the agency to accelerate the growth of start-up companies that have the capability to become High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Companies. This fund routinely targets specific sectors, regions and cohorts to ensure that the assets of the state are utilised to promote start-up enterprises and to drive job creation. In 2016, 128 new start-up enterprises were approved funding under this initiative.

- Equity investment High Potential Start-ups (HPSUs) with the potential to develop an innovative product or service for sale on international markets and the potential to create 10 jobs and €1m in sales within 3 to 4 years of starting up. 101 new High Potential Start-Ups were supported in 2016, 48% of which were from outside Dublin.

- Enterprise Ireland has a service level agreement with four Business Incubation Centres through the country 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. 

- In 2016, Enterprise Ireland’s entrepreneurship programmes had 407 participants. In 2016 there was six newly established funds under the Seed & Venture Capital Scheme (2013- 2018) making additional funds of over €330m available for investment in Irish companies.

- Enterprise Ireland has funded campus incubators in every Higher Education Institute throughout the country. These 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.

- Under the 2015 -2017 Accelerator Development Scheme, Enterprise Ireland has funded two accelerators outside of Dublin to enhance the start-up eco-system in their region. More accelerators will be announced in due course.

At local level, the advent of the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) has enabled Enterprise Ireland to play a critical role in driving and nurturing entrepreneurship from the original local level idea, through to successfully competing in global markets.

The LEOs were established as the ‘first-stop-shops’ for advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports for anyone who intends 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, Education and Training Boards, Credit Review Office, and Microfinance Ireland. The LEOs can also offer advice and guidance in areas such as Local Authority rates, public procurement and other regulations affecting business.

There are a range of supports available from the LEOs to assist start-ups. The LEOs can offer direct grant aid to microenterprises (10 employees or fewer) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong export entities. These include feasibility grants (investigating the potential of a business idea) and priming grants (to part-fund a start-up). In 2016, over €7 million in priming grants was approved for 357 new LEO clients across the country.

Anyone with a viable business proposal can also use the LEOs 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. Successful applicants can avail of a more favourable interest rate from MFI if they make their application through the LEO.

The LEOs attracted 1,471 applicants to the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) 2018 competition by the closing date at the end of September 2017. IBYE is a programme run by the 31 LEOs with the support of my Department and Enterprise Ireland and is aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship as a career choice among young people. The competition is open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 with an innovative business idea and has an investment fund of up to €2million.

The LEOs also run promotional events such as the National Women’s Enterprise Day and the Local Enterprise Week, which are aimed at, inter alia, promoting the LEO services and encouraging people to start or grow a business. These events are supplemented by LEO participation in other promotional events such as the National Ploughing Championships and the forthcoming Taking Care of Business event in Dublin Castle on 8 November.