Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

15. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if grant aid is available for a company (details supplied) to expand in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47097/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Local Enterprise Offices nationwide act as a ‘First Stop Shop’ providing information, guidance, training and development and financial assistance to anyone looking to start, grow or pivot their own business. They serve as a ‘signposting’ service for all government supports available to the SME sector and can provide information or referrals to other relevant bodies under agreed protocols e.g., Revenue, Micro Finance Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, LEADER, and Enterprise Ireland.

The Local Enterprise Offices offer direct financial assistance to micro-enterprises operating in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong export entities.

However, it should be noted that they do not provide grants to areas such as retail, personal services, local professional services, local building services, as to do so can lead to unacceptable deadweight (where the economic activity would proceed without intervention) and/or displacement (where the economic activity could displace business from other players in the market).

The Local Enterprise Offices provide to all SMEs a wide range of high-quality business and management development programmes that are tailored to meet specific business requirements, including the mentor programme which is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owners who need practical and strategic one to one advice and guidance on how best to proceed with their business plans.

Other programmes such as LEAN for Micro and Green for Micro can provide these business owners with advice on reducing costs and increasing efficiencies within their business. The above supports along with a host of others can also be found on the supportingsmes.gov.ie website. This is a cross-governmental guide to help small businesses know which of the over 170 Government supports could fit their business.