Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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289. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications to the retail online scheme to date by county; the number of eligible and ineligible applications, respectively; and the number of approved applications to which funding has issued in tabular form. [16038/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The pilot Online Retail Scheme administered on behalf of my Department by Enterprise Ireland is aimed at supporting a cohort of retailers to enhance their digital capability and develop a more competitive online offer that will enable them to increase their customer base and build a more resilient business in the domestic and global marketplace both online and offline.

The Scheme has a total fund size of €1.25m. Successful applicants will be awarded funding to support a maximum of 50% of the project eligible costs with grants ranging from €10,000 to €25,000. Typical elements involved in developing a sophisticated and transactional online presence are eligible for support under the Fund, including research, consultancy costs for strategy development / implementation and training costs.

Applications for funding under this pilot Scheme are considered on a competitive basis under calls for applications.  The first call commenced 24 October 2018 and closed on 5 December 2018. I announced the cohort of 11 successful applicants on 1 March 2019. The second Call will issue later in 2019.

A breakdown of all applications per county is set out in tabular format below:

Table 1: Applications received per county

Each application is assessed against an agreed list of eligible and ineligible activities and criteria. Applications were deemed ineligible due to late applications, incomplete applications, ineligible based on criteria and offline submissions. 14 applications were deemed ineligible.