Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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543. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of businesses that have availed of the Brexit start planning vouchers to date; the estimated spend in 2018 and 2019, for the Brexit start planning vouchers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36313/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As part of its Brexit Advisory Service, InterTrade Ireland (ITI) offers vouchers which enable companies to get professional advice on how best to plan and prepare for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.  This support helps businesses obtain advice on specific areas such as tariffs, currency management, regulatory and customs issues and movement of labour, goods and services.  ITI vouchers are worth up to £2000/€2000 (inclusive of VAT) each. To date, 394 vouchers have been approved for companies on both sides of the border, with 135 applications pending approval.

The forecasted expenditure on these vouchers in 2018 is £581,000, which is approximately €646,000. In 2019, working within current budgetary estimates and assuming changes to the cross-border trading relationships as a result of Brexit, ITI expects to incur expenditure of up to £1.18m (or approximately €1.31m) on this programme.

It should be noted that this is only one of a wide range of supports offered by my Department and its Agencies to help businesses prepare for Brexit.