Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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89. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the details of any ongoing engagement between the indigenous enterprise, SMEs and entrepreneurship division of his Department and other Departments and agencies with regard to the promotion of indigenous industries in Ireland particularly in view of the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43794/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I can assure the Deputy of the value that this Government and my Department places on helping entrepreneurs, indigenous SMEs and micro-enterprises  as creators of employment all over Ireland to grow and thrive in our economy. Ensuring we have the best business environment for all businesses to grow and proposer requires a whole of Government approach so we can underpin the longer-term resilience of our enterprise sector to deal with future shocks. That is why engagement and coordination with other Departments and agencies is so important to delivering on our indigenous enterprise development priorities, including through Cabinet Committees, Senior Officials Groups and other enterprise stakeholder groups and fora which I and my officials actively lead and are involved with.   

A central focus for my Department and the Indigenous Enterprise Division over the last two years in particular is assisting businesses across all sectors to prepare for Brexit and to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the development of business continuity checklists, toolkits, grants and awareness campaigns, online grant schemes, schemes for recruiting staff to deal with customs, a range of loan and finance schemes including the €800m Future Growth Loan Scheme and the €2bn Credit Guarantee Scheme developed with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, the design and delivery of the €650m Restart Grant Scheme and top-ups in 2020 and the Small Business Assistance Scheme for COVID (SBASC) this year. The Division also has liaison responsibility for Enterprise Ireland, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and each of these agencies have implemented a range of new grant and advisory schemes to help indigenous businesses on behalf of the Department., which have helped thousands of indigenous businesses through the COVID-19 crisis.    

A key priority in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future was the establishment of the SME Growth Taskforce, which I Chaired in the latter half of 2020 and was a follow-up on the recommendations in the 2019 OECD on SME and Entrepreneurship Policy commissioned by my Department. The Taskforce membership included entrepreneurs, business leaders, unions and other stakeholders to fulfil the commitment made in the Programme for Government to draw up a long-term strategic blueprint for SMEs and entrepreneurs beyond COVID-19. The research and work of the Taskforce included engagement with a range of government departments and agencies on the key development issues for indigenous enterprise. The resulting report 'SME and Entrepreneurship Growth Plan’, sets out a wide range of recommendations with long-term strategic relevance for SMEs and entrepreneurs. The recommendations include measures to help SMEs and entrepreneurs to start up, scale up and access foreign markets, as well as recommendations aimed at helping SMEs to become more productive and ready for the transition to a digital, green economy. 

Following the publication of the Report, a Ministerial-led 'SME & Entrepreneurship Implementation Group' was formed to take forward these proposals in conjunction with appropriate Government Departments, Agencies and other stakeholders. To-date the Implementation Group, which is led by my colleagues Minister English and Minister Troy and the Indigenous Enterprise Division have met on five occasions and have held sessions to discuss progress on thematic areas such as insurance costs, access to finance, entrepreneurship and internationalisation, digitalisation, clustering and networking. The  Taskforce is meeting in plenary tomorrow to review progress on the recommendations and to consider any additional measures needed to help our indigenous sector as the economy reopens. 

In addition to the commitment to establish the SME and Entrepreneurship TaskForce, the Division also led on the commitment in the Programme for Government to establish a SME State Bodies Group, to consider access to finance issues for indigenous enterprise. I chair this Group, together with my Ministerial colleagues the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, T.D. and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath, T.D. The Group was a particularly helpful forum for assessing the financing needs of SMEs as the COVID-19 crisis unfolded and as the Indigenous Enterprise Division worked on the design of the COVID Credit Guarantee Scheme. To date over €500m has been drawn down by over 7,000 indigenous businesses. Similarly, the Division worked with Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture on the development of the new €330m Brexit Impact Loan Scheme, the enabling legislation for which was passed by the Oireachtas earlier this year.  In addition, for the agri-food sector, my officials in the Indigenous Enterprise Division have worked closely also with DAFM colleagues on the design and implementation of the €75m Agri-Food Competitiveness and Market Diversification Fund I launched earlier this year to help impacted businesses in the sector respond to the twin challenges of COVID and Brexit. 

More generally, we are working to increase the range businesses eligible for assistance and the 31 Local Enterprise Offices have already started on this road with the Productivity Fund and Business Continuity Vouchers, which targeted an expanded cohort of enterprises that is firms with up to 50 employees which would customarily not have qualified for funding. Enterprise Ireland is also working with a broader base of non-exporting SMEs, with the Retail On-line scheme and the COVID-19 Sustaining Enterprise Fund and the Sustaining Enterprise and Accelerated Recovery Fund. We are also providing more and cheaper loan finance through MicroFinance Ireland, SBCI and the €2bn Credit Guarantee Scheme. We have also launched a number of new climate change advisory and grants schemes this year and I am pleased that the LEOs' Green for Micro scheme is progressing well. 

In response to the on-going issues arising from COVID-19, my Department continued to virtually engage with indigenous enterprise through the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEO). Many of the ongoing schemes and initiatives were moved to online platforms to allow for continued engagement with client companies. 

The Look for Local campaign launched earlier this summer by the LEOs, is funded by my Department and supported by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Authorities.  The Look for Local campaign was an opportunity for the LEOs to show support for all those small businesses as they reopened and encouraged Irish consumers to do the same. 

My colleague Damien English T.D., Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail chairs the Retail Forum. The Retail Forum was established by my Department in June 2014 and provides a platform for structured engagement between retail representative bodies, retailers and the public sector on key concerns for the retail sector. The agenda is driven by Forum Members with key issues discussed at Forum level and also progressed through Working Groups.

In addition to the Retail Forum, Minister of State English has engaged directly with the retail, grocery and distribution sector during the pandemic and Brexit. The Forum will meet later this week to consider the progress on a major review of the future of the retail sector and also progress on the Online Retail Scheme, for which over €19m has been awarded to retail businesses to date.   

in relation to the indigenous personal services sectors, Minister English, along with colleagues from the Indigenous Enterprise, SMEs and Entrepreneurship Division have formally held a number of meetings with representatives from the Hair and Beauty sector to discuss issues arising from COVID as well as other concerns and needs the sector has to become more resilient, sustainable and competitive in attracting and retaining employees and this engagement will continue.

My Department is also in regular contact with these representatives to keep them informed on subjects such as education and training, while responding to any queries they may have, e.g. VAT rates, statutory sick pay, etc. As a result, my Department have engaged with colleagues from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection on a range of topics pertinent to that Sector.  

Regional enterprise development and sustainable local job creation is a key policy priority of mine and this Government. My Department is overseeing the development of nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024, including for each region. These are bottom-up plans, developed by regional stakeholders including the Local Authorities, the enterprise agencies, local enterprise offices, regional skills forum and education and training institutes in each region.

The Plans aim to identify growth opportunities, recognise vulnerabilities, and in response, strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem to enable job creation in the regions and are additional to the ongoing work of the various bodies such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, and others focusing on collaborative initiatives aimed at job creation in the regions. 

Each Plan is overseen and monitored by a Regional Steering Committee made up of regional stakeholders and chaired by a senior level private sector businessperson. My Departmental colleagues, Minister Robert Troy and Minister Damien English are driving the delivery of the new Plans and chair a national oversight group which enables sharing of best practice and collaboration opportunities across the regions. 

In relation to the tourism and hospitality sectors, which are significant indigenous employers, I established and chair the Hospitality Forum with my colleague the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin T.D., who has lead policy responsibility and Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland are agencies of her Department.  My Department and the Indigenous Enterprise Division continue to work closely with colleagues across government departments and agencies on measures and funding schemes to assist the hospitality, live events and exhibition sectors and most recently were central to the recent reopening of indoor hospitality in July.  

While the last year has been challenging for indigenous enterprise, we have a strong and resilient base of businesses that we are committed to ensuring can sustain and grow their employment and sales into the future. I was pleased last week to lead the first in-person trade mission of indigenous enterprise since last March 2020 to the UK, France and Germany, to promote Irish innovation and secure additional contracts. I and my Department will continue to work with government departments and sectoral agencies as appropriate to ensure that we have the most conducive and competitive environment and to strengthen the close working with sectoral policy departments and sectoral agencies.