Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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45. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the details of the activities of the local enterprise office in Swords; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5757/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Creating more and better jobs in Ireland is a priority for the Government. As the Government works to achieve balanced regional development, the LEO's will play a major role. 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. LEO Fingal continues to support enterprise and entrepreneurial development across the county through a substantial programme of initiatives and events.

In 2017, LEO Fingal provided grants to the value of €761,000 to 36 small businesses and it is expected that these financial supports will lead to the creation of 243 jobs within the next three years.

LEO Fingal provides a range of management development programmes and business development initiatives on a collaborative basis with the other three LEOs in the Dublin region.

Start Your Own Business’ (SYOB) programmes remained very strong in 2017. LEO Fingal provides a series of business and management development workshops to small and local businesses. Business clinics are offered to individuals that wish to start up a new enterprise or expand their existing business and are provided by skilled mentors from the LEO mentor panel.

Mentoring is a one to one professional business service, enabling small and start-up businesses to benefit from the expertise of a panel of business mentors. Under the Trading Online Voucher scheme. 51 vouchers were approved in 2017 to the value of €106,663.

On 24 January 2018 Fingal was successful at the Dublin Regional Final of the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition, scooping two of the three top prizes: Best Business Idea and Best Business Start-Up categories.

A series of sectoral initiatives aimed at stimulating, supporting and developing the very important food sector in Fingal are ongoing. The Fingal final and awards event of the Student Enterprise Programme will take place on 22 March in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown. This is a National initiative aimed at developing an entrepreneurial culture by enabling second level school students to plan, start and run their own “real-life” mini-business.

Local Enterprise Week commences on 5 March 2018 this year and will see a wide variety of events take place across Fingal and the region (20+). Each year LEO Fingal brings together agencies and local business support organisations during Local Enterprise Week, running a very successful series of events.

In addition to the LEO supports, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are working with Fingal County Council to develop a new business park in Balbriggan which is forecast to cater for 900 new jobs in the medium-term.