Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated for restart grants under the Supplementary Estimate for 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9145/23]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Restart Grant Scheme and its successor Restart Grant Plus Scheme were operational in 2020. It was launched in May 2020 and closed for applications on 31^stOctober 2020.

The 31 local authorities who operated the scheme received a total of 123,185 applications, of which 108,489 were successful. Overall Scheme cost was €632.4m, provided from the Department’s 2020 Vote. Of this total, €297,920 was made in 2021 on foot of finalisation of approved items. The Scheme was superseded by the CRSS, operated by the Revenue Commissioners.

As the Restart Grant Scheme was part of the Government's early response to assist businesses in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now closed, no DETE funding has been sought in the supplementary estimate for 2023.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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67. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated for the skills for better business scheme under the Supplementary Estimate for 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9146/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Skills for Better Business comprises an Online Tool for management skills assessment, complemented by a sign-posting resource providing easy to access contact information for management education and training. The initiative was launched by my Department on 30 November 2022.

No supplementary funding has been sought for this initiative in 2023. I am satisfied that there is sufficient funding in my Department’s core budget and across the budgets of the partner organisations for the successful rollout of this initiative. Most of the resources for this project have been met directly by the fourteen partner organisations via the time and expertise they have devoted to the work, and this continues to be the case.

The 14 project partners are: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Skillnet Ireland; Enterprise Ireland; SOLAS; the Small Firms Association (SFA); ISME; the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs); the Regional Skills Fora; the Higher Education Authority (HEA); the Higher Education Colleges Association (HECA); Chambers Ireland; Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI); the Irish Universities Association (IUA); and the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA).

The direct cost of the Online Tool, at €60,300, is only a small part of the resource input into the project. Different sub-groups of the 14 partners worked on the Online Tool, the Courses & Contacts pages, and the Comms Strategy for the project. The contribution in time and expertise from all involved was very substantial throughout. These organisations have therefore absorbed much of the cost of the project through their collaboration in its delivery. The project is set to continue in a similar manner in 2023, the focus being to maintain and promote the website on which the online tool is located.

The main message for SME owners and managers, which was emphasised in the EGFSN's Leading the Way report, is that prioritising management training and development is an investment in the success of a business. The OECD has highlighted that productivity is relatively low in Irish SMEs and one of the most direct ways to improve that is for management skills and practices to improve.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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68. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated for the halo angel scheme under the Supplementary Estimate for 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9147/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Halo Business Angels Network is a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland (ITI) and Invest NI and is operated by ITI. It helps companies raise new equity capital in the early stages of their development. It also represents an alternative source of investment to venture capital funding.

The term 'Business Angels' refers to high net worth individuals who invest on their own, or as part of a syndicate, in high growth businesses. In addition to capital, they often make their own skills, experience and contacts available to the company concerned to help it grow and develop. The individual amounts invested by Business Angels are usually in the range of €25,000 to €250,000, although syndicated deals (where a group of angels invest together) can be up to €1m.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment provides joint funding, alongside the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy, to ITI. My Department's budget allocation for ITI in 2023 is €11.586 million, of which €8.9 million is dedicated to capital funding to allow ITI to operate its supports.

ITI uses this funding from both Departments to operate a wide range of supports to help promote trade and business on an all-island and cross-border basis. ITI is responsible for managing its individual programmes and utilising its overall budget allocation towards its supports.

ITI’s budget for the Halo Business Angels Network in 2023 is €351k, which will be used to help promote the initiative and link investors with high growth firms.