Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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320. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of firms with fewer than ten employees that have applied to Enterprise Ireland programmes (details supplied); the number that have successfully applied and been granted funding for the programmes; and the percentage of firms as a proportion with fewer than ten employees that have applied out of all firm sizes to each programme out of all applicant firms. [32133/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland (EI) supports companies in urban and rural areas to start, innovate and remain competitive in international markets, now and into the future. EI’s focus for 2018 is to help clients build on the strength of their 2017 performance by supporting them to innovate, be competitive and to diversify their global footprint - key attributes required to be resilient to economic shocks, such as those emerging from any kind of Brexit.

In November 2017, EI launched a new fast-track Agile Innovation Fund to give companies rapid access to innovation funding. This fund supports companies in sectors with rapid design cycles to maintain their technology position. To date there have been 18 approvals, of which 3 (or 16.07 per cent) were to companies who reported less than 10 employees at the time of approval.

EI’s In-house Research, Development and Innovation Fund supports the development of new or substantially improved products, services or process. The table below presents in-house research, development and innovation fund approvals in each of the years 2014 to 2017 and to date in 2018 for companies with less than 10 employees.

Enterprise Ireland’s Strategic Consultancy Grant is open to SMEs only, in line with the EU State aid requirements for consultancy support. The aim of this offer is to improve the strategic capability of SMEs and to assist in the development of specific strategic initiatives. The table below presents the number of Strategic Consultancy grants approved in each of the years 2014 to 2017 and to date in 2018 for companies with less than 10 employees.