Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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23. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if there are business supports available to a person (details supplied) who is taking-over a family motor business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47176/22]

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

The Local Enterprise Offices can offer direct grant aid to businesses 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 direct grant-aid 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 a wide range of high-quality business and management development programmes that are tailored to meet specific business requirements. I would encourage anyone who is running their own business to speak with the experienced business advisors within their Local Enterprise Office regarding the assistance they can offer.

The mentor programme, which is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owners, provides expert guidance on the best course of action to develop a small business.

Other programmes such as LEAN for Micro and Green for Micro provide business owners with tools and advice on reducing costs and increasing efficiencies within their business. I would also encourage them to enquire about the available digital supports such as the Trading Online Voucher scheme and the Digital Start Programme, which can assist businesses in developing their e-commerce capabilities and includes further training in digital marketing and social media.

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.