Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the primary providers of supports to assist enterprises within the indigenous sector that are facing challenges arising from Brexit. They are working vigorously to enable companies to consolidate market share within the UK and also to become more resilient by broadening their sales to other international markets.

My Department provided additional resources in 2017 to enable EI and the LEOs to ramp up supports in light of Brexit to drive improvements in:

- productivity,

- competitiveness,

- innovation, and

- management capability and leadership skills.

Enterprise Ireland’s funding for 2017 included an additional €1.7 million to assist in the recruitment of 39 Brexit specific posts. A further €1.3m was provided in budget 2018 to enable EI to recruit approximately 18 additional staff this year.

As part of EI’s response to Brexit, the agency launched several initiatives including:

- Brexit Scorecard: This interactive online platform can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six business pillars. Based on answers supplied by the user, the Scorecard generates an immediate report which contains suggested actions and resources, and information on events for companies to attend, to prepare for Brexit.

- Be Prepared Grant: This grant offers SMEs a grant of up to €5,000 to assist them in preparing an action plan for economic shocks such as Brexit. The grant can be used to help cover consultancy, travel and travel expenses associated with researching the direction of their action plan.

- Brexit Advisory Clinics: Enterprise Ireland held four Brexit Advisory Clinics over the past few months in Portlaoise, Mayo, Cavan and Cork. The purpose of these Clinics is to support companies affected by Brexit to take immediate action to address their exposure. More dates will be announced soon.

- Brexit Act On Programme: A consultant spends time with EI client companies to discuss specific challenges and draw up a report with tailored recommendations that will help them address weaknesses and become more resilient.

In addition, EI is implementing extensive trade mission and event schedules focused on global and sectoral opportunities, further developing in-market expertise and networks, placing greater focus on identifying new sectoral opportunities and stimulating demand for Irish products and services through international marketing campaigns. In 2017, EI launched a new Eurozone Strategy to increase exports to Eurozone countries by 50% by 2020.

The LEOs are supporting their clients by providing information, training and mentoring on Brexit related issues as well as advice on other sources of support. The six LEOs in the Border region are also working together with their Northern Ireland counterparts under the EU Co-Innovate Programme.

Other initiatives that my Department are advancing include the €300 million Brexit Loan Scheme, under which accessible finance is made available to businesses at favourable terms.

In addition, on Monday 16th April last I launched the second call of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund, which is aimed at supporting the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at a national, regional and county level. Twenty-one successful applicants representing all regions of the country have secured up to €30.5m for their projects in the first competitive call. I know there is great interest in this Second Call in across all counties, including in Longford and Westmeath, and I would encourage all stakeholders in those counties to continue to work collaboratively to develop strong and competitive proposals over the coming weeks.