Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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289. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of local enterprise office supported jobs created in each of the years 2012 to 2016 and to date in 2017; and the target numbers for each of the years 2018 to 2021, in tabular form. [51530/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and ‘soft’ supports in the form of training and mentoring to anyone wishing to start or grow a business.

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, the Credit Review Office and Microfinance Ireland. The LEOs 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 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) priming grants (to part-fund a start-up) and business development grants for existing businesses that want to expand.

Details of the number of new full- and part-time jobs created in gross terms amongst LEO supported companies from 2014 to 2016 are set out in the table.

It should be noted that the LEO client database was reviewed as part of the process of restructuring the enterprise supports for micro-enterprises and so comparative data for the years prior to 2014 is not available. Please also note that the 2017 outcomes won’t be known until completion of the annual employment survey of LEO clients in Q1 2018. 

In 2017, each Local Enterprise Office (LEO) produced a four-year Local Enterprise Development Plan (LEDP) for 2017 to 2020 setting out the annual activities that will be undertaken to further their strategic objectives. The Plans are aimed at further boosting enterprise growth within the area within their remit by building on the achievements to date and setting targets for job creation and enterprise growth in their area. The LEOs have targeted the creation in 2017 of almost 7,000 gross new jobs by the companies supported by them, with an estimated cumulative target of 17,000 gross new jobs between 2018 and 2020.