Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the additional funding made available to local enterprise offices in counties Cavan and Monaghan in Budget 2021. [37535/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is a priority that the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, as the first stop shop for business, are sufficiently resourced in order to support businesses and protect jobs as the country deals with the dual challenges of COVID-19 and Brexit.

In Budget 2021 the Local Enterprise Offices are provided with a capital increase of €6 million and a further €5 million will be made available from the €100 million recovery fund allocated to my Department.This represents a 40% increase on the LEO capital budget over 2020.  Furthermore, an additional €1.3 million in current funding has been allocated to allow the network to augment its staffing resource to deal with the ongoing increased demand for its services. Local Enterprise Offices are also supporting businesses right across the country in all regions, through “soft” supports such as mentoring and training. 

The additional funding will be used to service an expected increase in demand for core funding supports such as feasibility, priming and expansion grants, as well as continued demand for assistance dealing with the dual issues of COVID-19 and Brexit.

This year's budget allocation for Brexit and COVID-19 measures for the LEOs in Cavan and Monaghan is broken down as follows:

In addition, the Border Enterprise Development Fund (BEDF), which is administered by Enterprise Ireland, will provide support for collaborative projects to advance entrepreneurship, productivity and innovation in the Border Region. The Fund is part of a €28 million economic stimulus package announced for the six border counties of Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal earlier this year. Under the BEDF, 11 projects have recently been approved funding totalling over €17 million with projects approved in each of the Border counties.