Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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299. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the amount of funding provided to local enterprise offices in County Cork to date in 2018; and the direct supports in place for small businesses via these offices. [22590/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Funding from my Department for Local Enterprise Development is allocated to the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) through the Centre of Excellence in Enterprise Ireland. There are 3 LEO offices in County Cork; Cork City, Cork North/West and Cork South. Funding is allocated among the LEOs to support clients through the provision of grants (Measure 1) and soft supports (Measure 2), such as training and mentoring, and used to fund the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) programme. Details of the total funds drawn down by the 3 Cork LEO’s since 1 January 2018 to date is set out in the table.  

The LEOs are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports for anyone who intends to start or grow their own business. There are 31 LEO’s located nationally. 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 2017, almost €6.5 million in priming grants was approved for 294 new LEO clients across the country. It should be noted that the LEOs do not provide direct grant-aid to areas such as retail, personal services, local professional services, construction/local building services, as it may give rise to the displacement of existing businesses).

The LEOs attracted 1,471 applicants to the recent Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition. 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 €2 million.

The LEOs may be able to offer ‘soft’ supports in the form of training, such as a Start Your Own Business (SYOB) course, or assign a mentor to work with the business proposer. Over 3,700 participants attended SYOB courses run by the LEOs in 2017.

The Student Enterprise Programme (SEP), which is run by the LEOs, is the biggest enterprise competition for students in Ireland. It helps students to grasp real life skills associated with running a real enterprise including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liaising directly with customers, judges and the media. Over 22,000 second level students participate on the Programme each year.

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 Championship.

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.

A range of supports have been developed to assist LEO clients facing the challenges posed by Brexit, but many of these are beneficial for all micro and small enterprises, particularly those who are seeking to grow their business or explore new markets. These supports include:

- Information events around the country for core and non-core clients. The objective of these sessions is to enable companies to learn about the potential impacts and opportunities of Brexit, and to engage in a process of strategic planning to ensure their companies have a robust strategy in place.

- The information sessions are supplemented by an online Brexit SME Scorecard that LEO clients can complete to self-assess their readiness for Brexit. The Scorecard generates an immediate report which contains suggested actions and resources, and information on events for companies to attend, to prepare for Brexit.

- A key element of the range of LEO Brexit responses is a Lean4Micro programme, which was designed to encourage clients to adopt Lean business principles in their organisation to increase performance and competitiveness. This programme is relevant to all micro and small businesses.

- Along with the core LEO priming and business development grants, the LEOs are now offering a Technical Assistance for Micro-exporters (TAME) grant, which is designed to help LEO clients to find new markets and exports by part-funding expenditure incurred investigating and researching export markets, e.g. exhibiting at Trade Fairs, preparing marketing material and developing websites specifically targeting export markets.

- The Trading Online Voucher Scheme (TOVs) is a grant scheme designed to assist micro businesses to establish or enhance their online presence, which can also aid the Brexit transition.  It offers financial assistance of up to €2,500 along with training, advice and mentoring to help businesses trade online.

- The LEO Mentor Programme is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owners/managers who need practical and strategic one-to-one advice and guidance. Tailored mentoring is being rolled out to address Brexit-related business challenges.  The LEOs also share the Enterprise Ireland Mentor platform for their clients, which provides expertise regarding export matters, including in relation to export finance.

- The LEO Innovation and Investment Fund (LIIF) programme is a new scheme to support innovation in micro-enterprises and get them investor ready to scale their businesses. Successful applicants will undertake an intensive investor ready development programme, which includes one to one mentoring, focused on developing a robust business plan. Upon completion of the programme, the applicants pitch to a panel of LEO, EI and private sector representatives for grant investment which will go towards the execution of their investor ready business plan.