Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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9. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department has engaged with local enterprise offices on their funding allocation in Budget 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53876/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) were created to promote entrepreneurship and enterprise development and act as a ‘first-stop-shop’ for advice and guidance, financial assistance, and business and management development programmes. They provide signposting for all government assistance to SMEs and provide referrals to other relevant bodies such as Revenue, Micro Finance Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, LEADER, and Enterprise Ireland.

The LEO Impact Report 2021 shows they are now supporting 7,158 small businesses, and 35,729 jobs. 7,440 of these jobs were newly created in 2021 and 2021 represents the 8th year of continuous employment growth for the LEOs since their inception in 2014.

My work as Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, involves regular visits to the LEO network across the country to meet with the Head of Enterprise, members of the LEO team and the Evaluation Committee for a briefing about their ongoing work and their future plans for enterprise development. I also meet with some of their client companies – SMEs who are the heartbeat of the local economy.

Each year, my Department engages with the Enterprise Ireland Centre of Excellence to determine the capital requirements for the LEOs for the following year. The forecasting is based on the activity of the previous year, policy priorities and consultation with the LEO network.

Under Budget 2023 an additional €4 million in capital was secured giving a total allocation of €47.8 million, representing a 9% increase in their allocation.