Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the level of take-up of Brexit support schemes by enterprises in County Cork; if he is satisfied with the current level of readiness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35134/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department and its agencies have put a wide range of enterprise measures in place to assist businesses in identifying key risk areas and practical preparatory actions to be taken with regard to Brexit.

The Local Enterprise Offices in County Cork offer grants to businesses responding to Brexit challenges including the approval of 7 Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters grant of €2,500 in 2020 and 18 LEAN for Micro interventions in 2020. Along with one-to-one Brexit mentoring and training, they have also held four Customs Training Events in 2020 to date with 72 participants, with another three events planed before end 2020. 

The LEOs social media ‘Countdown Campaign’ got underway in September, marking 100 days to go until January 1st 2021, featuring the ‘change is coming’ message and supported with LEO branded social media cards, website sliders, email signatures and Mailchimp graphics for ezines.

The Brexit Loan Scheme makes working capital lending available to eligible Irish businesses negatively exposed to current or future impacts arising as a result of Brexit. Loans range from €25,000 to €1.5m for terms of up to three years. The most recent county-level figures available are to the end Q2 (June). At that time, 26 businesses had so far progressed to loan sanction, to a total value of €6.71m.

Enterprise Ireland assistance is also set out below:

In addition:

1, 043 companies have undertaken the Brexit Scorecard.

2 Brexit Advisory Clinics were held in Cork. 134 companies attended these clinics.  As part of this, there were 115 one-to-one meetings.

187 companies have signed up for the Customs Insights Online Module.

I and my Department and its agencies will continue to encourage business to examine their readiness for Brexit and take actions where shortfalls in those plans are evident.