Written answers

Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Enterprise Support Services

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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34. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies that will enter the food works programme in 2021. [11695/21]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Food Works programme is a Government supported business accelerator programme that aims to develop the next generation of scalable and export driven Irish food and drinks businesses. It was established in 2012 as a collaboration between Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland. In Food Works, successful participants are given a range of practical business aids required to develop an initial concept into a winning food product with international appeal. The available supports include consumer market research, business plan development, technical advice, and commercial viability testing. Access to incubation units, research and development (R&D) facilities and introduction to the investment community are also important aspects of Food Works. My Department, through Enterprise Ireland, grants feasibility funding of up to €35,000 to participants on this programme.

Since its inception in 2012, 93 companies in all have completed the Food Works programme and 8 companies will enter the programme in 2021.

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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35. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies that have participated in the food works programme since inception; and the number of the companies and alumni still trading and are solvent. [11696/21]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Food Works programme is a Government supported business accelerator programme that aims to develop the next generation of scalable and export driven Irish food and drinks businesses. It was established in 2012 as a collaboration between Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland. In Food Works, successful participants are given a range of practical business aids required to develop an initial concept into a winning food product with international appeal. The available supports include consumer market research, business plan development, technical advice, and commercial viability testing. Access to incubation units, research and development (R&D) facilities and introduction to the investment community are also important aspects of Food Works. My Department, through Enterprise Ireland, grants feasibility funding of up to €35,000 to participants on this programme.

Since its inception in 2012, 93 companies in all have completed the Food Works programme and 8 companies will enter the programme in 2021.

Enterprise Ireland does not report on the trading status or solvency of programme participants.

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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36. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies and-or persons that have participated in business innovation centre, BIC, programmes across all regional centres for each of the years 2016 to 2020 and to date in 2021; and the cost of the BIC programme to the Exchequer. [11697/21]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Business Innovation Centres were established in 1988 as a European Union (EU) initiative and until the end of 1999 were funded by the EU. The BIC’s are independent companies, limited by guarantee, and led by boards whose members come mainly from the private sector. There are four Business Innovation Centres located throughout the country as follows – Dublin BIC, Cork BIC, South East BIC based in Waterford and West BIC based in Galway.

Since 2000, EU funding was replaced by Government exchequer funding, which is administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of my Department. The payments made to the BICs for each year is €2,199,988. The payments are made on a quarterly basis, and no payments have been paid to date in 2021.

The BICs aim to empower entrepreneurs to start and scale by providing a comprehensive range of programmes specifically designed to advance the ambitions of early-stage companies.

The number of companies and or persons that have participated in BIC programmes across all regional centres for each of the years 2016 to 2020 and to date in 2021 are detailed in the table below:

Year 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021(YTD)
No. of Participants 920 983 1041 1190 1498 362

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