Written answers

Tuesday, 2 October 2018

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Brexit Supports

Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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316. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps she is taking in order to assist more businesses to accelerate contingency planning in order to be prepared for Brexit; the resources that have been put in place in order to achieve this in view of the fact that a recent survey (details supplied) showed that business preparedness for Brexit remained low; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40055/18]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Recent research published by my Department indicates a significant increase in levels of Brexit-preparedness among businesses surveyed. The overall number of businesses with a Brexit plan in place was found to be 28%, up from 16% at this time last year. Moreover, that figure rises to 44% of those businesses that described themselves as having been strongly impacted by Brexit, which is up from 17% in the previous survey.

While I am encouraged that these results are going in the right direction, there remains much to do to ensure that businesses are planning for Brexit and are well-placed to face the challenges that it presents. To that end, my Department and its agencies have put in place a number of supports to assist businesses plan for Brexit and continue raise awareness of these supports.

Enterprise Ireland has established a “Prepare for Brexit online” portal and communications campaign, as well as an online “Brexit SME Scorecard” to help Irish businesses to self-assess their exposure to Brexit, and a Be Prepared Grant to support SME clients in planning to mitigate the risks arising from Brexit. It has also launched a new Eurozone Strategy to help SMEs to broaden their footprint beyond the UK.

As part of awareness-raising activities, EI is rolling out regional Brexit Advisory Clinics throughout the year. To date, clinics have been held in Letterkenny, Tralee, Portlaoise, Claremorris, Cootehill, Charleville and the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Further events will be held in Galway, Dundalk, Waterford and Limerick. A two-day Brexit consultancy support is also being rolled out to individual clients to help them to develop a detailed sustainable growth plan.

The suite of Local Enterprise Office Brexit supports available to micro and small businesses through the 31 LEOs nationwide includes a “Technical Assistance for Micro-enterprises” grant, designed to support qualifying businesses to diversify into new markets, enabling companies to explore and develop new market opportunities. This is accompanied by tailored mentoring to address Brexit-related business challenges, and targeted training on specific Brexit challenges, including financial aspects and capability building in innovation, competitiveness and opportunity diagnosis.

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