Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if further particular incentives are being considered to encourage the entrepreneurial skills of younger persons with particular reference to those impacted by Covid-19 or Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9322/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department and its Agencies will continue our work to enable younger persons to develop the entrepreneurial skills needed to pursue their business ideas. This is particularly important given the twin challenges to businesses of COVID-19 and Brexit.

In 2021, Enterprise Ireland will continue to offer a number of start-up supports available to younger persons.

These include New Frontiers, which is the National Programme designed to develop entrepreneurs, delivered on behalf of Enterprise Ireland (EI) by Institutes of Technology and Universities nationwide. The programme takes place over three phases and consists of practical and interactive workshops, personalised one-to-one mentoring, financial support and co-working space.

EI’s Competitive Start Fund offers €50,000 equity investment designed to accelerate the development of high potential start-up companies, by supporting them to achieve commercial and technical milestones.

The Student Entrepreneur Awards, an annual event led and managed by EI, is open to full time registered third level students attending college on the island of Ireland. Students get the opportunity to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into commercial businesses.

In 2020, despite the pandemic, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) continued to provide advice and support to entrepreneurs to pursue their business ideas and look for opportunities to start up new businesses.

The LEOs offer a broad range of training programmes to support entrepreneurship and develop start-up businesses and in response to the restrictions in place during lockdown. These have been pivoted to online platforms, making them more accessible than ever before to new entrepreneurs.

These include the Start Your Own Business (SYOB) programme, which guides clients through the various aspects of business and business planning has continued across the country throughout the pandemic.

The Mentor Programme is a free of charge service allowing clients to work with an experienced mentor to identify solutions to areas of exposure within their business. With advice and guidance from their mentor, clients develop strategies that are more robust, which address issues and maximises potential opportunities including those around COVID-19 and Brexit challenges.

The Lean for Micro initiative helps build resilience within small companies. Under this Programme, clients can avail of consultancy support with a LEAN Expert (a qualified practitioner), who will work with the company to introduce lean principles, undertake a specific cost saving projects and assist the company in benchmarking its performance. During the COVID pandemic, the principles of LEAN for Micro have also been used to help implement new remote working and physical distancing guidelines.

The LEOs continue to reinforce entrepreneurship in the education system as a critical element in the future development of small business in Ireland. A number of initiatives are run by the LEOs at both primary and secondary level with the flagship programme the Student Enterprise Programme.

Finally, the ‘Report of the SME Taskforce: SME and Entrepreneurship Growth Plan’, which was published last month by my Department, sets out a wide range of recommendations with long-term strategic relevance for SMEs and entrepreneurs.

The Report, which was developed by an SME Taskforce of entrepreneurs, business leaders and other stakeholders, results from the commitment in the 'Programme for Government – Our Shared Future' to draw up an ambitious long-term strategic blueprint for SMEs and entrepreneurs beyond COVID-19.

The recommendations in the Report include measures to support the education of future and existing entrepreneurs throughout the different stages of education, including at Leaving Certificate and third level.

These proposals, while not yet Government policy, will be considered by a Ministerial-led SME & Entrepreneurship Implementation Group, in conjunction with appropriate Government Departments, Agencies and other stakeholders, during the course of 2021.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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20. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if further particular incentives are being considered to encourage the entrepreneurial skills of younger persons in County Kildare with particular reference to those impacted by Covid-19 or Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9323/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The 31 Local Enterprise Offices nationwide act as a ‘first-stop-shop’ providing advice and guidance, financial assistance, and other supports to those wishing to start or grow their own business and do so regardless of the age of the applicant. Their business advisors and mentors offer signposting to the programmes and supports that will help and encourage new entrepreneurs to start and successfully run their own businesses.

In 2020, despite the pandemic, the Local Enterprise Offices continued to provide advice and support to entrepreneurs to pursue their business ideas and look for opportunities to start up new businesses. By providing direct financial assistance to over 1,000 business projects, an estimated 366 of which were priming grants for start-up companies, the Local Enterprise Offices have participated in continuing to develop new enterprise in this country.

In 2020 the Local Enterprise Office in Kildare offered a broad range of training programmes to support entrepreneurship and develop start-up businesses. In response to the restrictions in place during lockdown, these were pivoted to Online platforms, making them more accessible than ever before to new entrepreneurs.

The Start Your Own Business (SYOB) programme which guides clients through the various aspects of business and business planning has continued across the country throughout the pandemic. This aims to assist clients in assessing their business idea, its viability and to help them to decide if they should proceed or take a step back. Since January last year the Local Enterprise Office in Kildare has hosted 21 Start Your Own Business courses with over 270 participants.

The Mentor Programme is a free of charge service allowing clients to work with an experienced mentor to identify solutions to areas of exposure within their business. With advice and guidance from their mentor, clients develop strategies that are more robust, which address issues and maximises potential opportunities including those around COVID-19 and Brexit challenges.

Lean for Micro which helps build resilience within small companies. Under this Programme, clients can avail of consultancy support with a LEAN Expert (a qualified practitioner), who will work with the company to introduce lean principles, undertake a specific cost saving projects and assist the company in benchmarking its performance. During the COVID pandemic, the principles of LEAN for Micro have also been used to help implement new remote working and physical distancing guidelines.

The Local Enterprise Offices also offer extensive Management training and development courses to further equip senior managers in Irish microenterprises to expand their knowledge and encourage best practice. Examples of this type of training are as follows: Advertising & Promotion, Banking & Finance, Basic Bookkeeping, Brexit Programme, Female Entrepreneurship, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Preparing Cash Flows & Developing a Business Plan, Sales and Selling.

The Local Enterprise Offices offer Customs workshops, open to all businesses. These one-day interactive workshops provide businesses with a better understanding of the potential impacts, formalities and procedures to be adopted when trading with a country which is outside the Single Market and Custom Unions (a "Third Country"). Now, in the aftermath of Brexit, these courses are being redesigned to provide accurate, up to date advice to business owners who currently export or those about to begin their export journey.

The LEOs continue to reinforce entrepreneurship in the education system as a critical element in the future development of small business in Ireland. A number of initiatives are run by the LEOs at both primary and secondary level with the flagship programme the The 2019/2020 LEO Second Level Student Enterprise participation in Kildare was 21 schools with 1,504 students participating.

Encouraging and promoting an enterprise culture is an important area of activity for Local Enterprise Offices, as it is critical that young people from all backgrounds see enterprise as a viable career choice. Our young people need to be open to the idea of creating a new job rather than looking for one. For all of these reasons the Local Enterprise Offices have strategically focused much of their endeavours in the field of entrepreneurship development on the education sector.

Enterprise Ireland also have a number of start-up supports available to younger persons such as:

New Frontiers: New Frontiers is the National Programme designed to develop entrepreneurs and delivered on behalf of Enterprise Ireland by Institutes of Technology and Universities nationwide. The programme takes place over three phases and consists of practical and interactive workshops, personalised one-to-one mentoring, financial support and co-working space.

Competitive Start Fund: €50,000 equity investment designed to accelerate the development of high potential start-up companies by supporting them to achieve commercial and technical milestones such as evaluating international market opportunities or building a prototype.

Student Entrepreneur Awards: An annual event led and managed by Enterprise Ireland with a number of co-sponsors, including Grant Thornton, Cruickshank, Local Enterprise Office. The competition is open to full time registered third level students attending college on the island of Ireland. Students get the opportunity to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into commercial businesses. There is €35,000 total prize money for an overall winner (€10,000) and specific category winners. These winners are also given access to mentoring supports from Enterprise Ireland and the programme sponsors.

For more in-depth information on all business supports available to all entrepreneurs, please see this departments website www.Enterprise.gov.ie.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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21. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the incentives in hand to encourage young persons to participate in the industrial sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9324/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department and its Agencies will continue our work to enable younger persons to develop the entrepreneurial skills needed to pursue their business ideas.

The Local Enterprise Offices in every county are the first stop shop for anyone interested in starting or scaling a business and they provide an extensive range of entrepreneurship promotional, advisory and funding schemes, including in the industrial sectors.

Similarly, Enterprise Ireland continues to work with early stage businesses and entrepreneurs on high potential business ideas and with the ambition to internationalise.

More generally, Intreo Offices throughout the country actively engaged with employers and those looking for employment opportunities and have a very good knowledge of openings and opportunities in the industrial sector at local level.

My colleagues, Minister Simon Harris TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and Minister Roderic O’Gorman TD, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, may be able to assist you further on what incentives are available for young people for participation in the industrial sector.