Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is continuing to work hard to help Irish businesses across the country to withstand the challenges and avail of the opportunities posed by Brexit. The long-term response to Brexit is for companies to become more competitive, more innovative, and to diversify their export footprint into more markets.

In 2017 Enterprise Ireland (EI) supported 1,733 jobs across 69 businesses in Sligo, and 559 jobs across 25 businesses in Leitrim.

In the period 2015 - 2017 EI paid €3.6 million to client companies in Sligo and Leitrim to support them to innovate, improve competitiveness and to diversify their global footprint. 

In response to Brexit, EI has introduced a range of new supports, streamlined others, and launched a Global Ambition communications campaign.

For client companies in Sligo and Leitrim, being prepared is crucial to ensuring resilience to emerging challenges. To promote awareness, and supported by a national Prepare For Brexit campaign, EI has:

- Developed and launched the Brexit SME Scorecard, an interactive online platform which can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six businesspillars. To date over 2,000 companies have utilised this Scorecard.

- Designed and launched a €5k Be Prepared Grant that helps to support the costs of SME clients to prepare a plan to mitigate risks and optimise opportunities arising from Brexit.

- Held a number of Brexit Advisory Clinics to encourage companies to examine their potential exposure to Brexit.

In 2018 EI is:

- Continuing to run regional Brexit Advisory Clinics to support companies to take immediate action to address their potential exposure.

- Providing an independent consultant to companies through the Act On Programme Initiative. This consultant will assist companies to identify specific actions they can take over a short periodto address some of the risks and opportunities caused by Brexit.

I launched the second round of the €60 million Regional Enterprise Development Fund. The Fund will support collaborative projects that will boost the regions by supporting enterprise and creating jobs.

In addition, the North East/North West Action Plan for Jobs was launched in November 2015, and covers Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. Implementation of the Plan is overseen by a Regional Implementation Committee made up of representatives from the public and private sector. There are 12,000 more people in employment in the Border region from Q1 2015, the baseline year, to Q2 2017. This represents good progress towards the target of 28,000 more jobs by 2020.

Brexit supports from LEOs in every county include the LEO Brexit Mentor Programme which is supporting Owner/Managers identify key Brexit exposures and develop robust strategies to address issues and maximise potential opportunities. The LEOs are also providing Technical Assistance for Micro-Exporters (TAME), which is financial assistance to support market diversification in qualifying businesses to develop new and export market opportunities. The LEOS are also helping businesses adopt LEAN business practices to increase competitiveness and providing support for innovative developments in micro-enterprises by getting them investor ready.

InterTrade Ireland (ITI) is offering Brexit ‘Start to Plan’ Vouchers and has established a Brexit Advisory Service to help businesses with practical advice, support and information on Brexit related issues. ITI also provides vouchers to enable companies to get professional advice on Brexit, including likely tariffs, currency management, regulatory and customs issues and movement of labour, goods and services.