James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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102. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the digital transformation supports and initiatives his Department is providing for businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8943/23]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Under the National Digital Strategy, Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework, Government has committed to driving a step change in the digitalisation of enterprise right across Ireland. Growing the use of digital technologies by businesses will help us to build the resilience of our enterprise base, particularly as we look to future-proof our economy for the years ahead.

The strategy sets out specific targets for the digitalisation of enterprise, including achieving 75% enterprise take-up of cloud, big data and AI by 2030; ensuring that 90% of our SMEs have reached at least a basic level of digital intensity by 2030; and ensuring that at least 35% of State funding for start-up and early-stage businesses is invested in innovative digital businesses from 2022 onwards.

It also sets a target of at least 800 businesses supported under the Digital Transition Fund by 2026. The Digital Transition Fund is one element of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan; it is an €85m fund that will run until 2026. Through this fund, we will increase the digitalisation of all businesses across their products, processes, supply chains and business models. Under Budget 2023, €16 million was allocated to the Digital Transition Fund.

Enterprise Ireland (EI) makes a suite of supports available to eligible businesses as they work to digitalise, including through the Digital Transition Fund (DTF) to help businesses to develop a strategic roadmap for digital transition and to support companies seeking to invest in the implementation of new or significantly improved production and service delivery. Beyond the DTF, EI also offers its clients support for strategic consultancy, exploring innovation, research and development and building their digital marketing capability.

The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) aims to encourage collaboration and innovation in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my Department and administered by EI. The fund encourages projects that complement the priority enterprise policy objective on digital transformation, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise. A sixth call of the DTIF will be announced in Q1 2023.

The network of 31 Local Enterprise Offices also offers a range of digitalisation supports to eligible businesses, including through the Trading Online Voucher scheme, which is in place to help businesses develop their online trading capability, and Digital Start, which is designed to help businesses prepare and implement a plan for the adoption of digital tools and techniques across the business. Digital Start can be used to obtain digital strategic, technical and/or advisory services from approved providers.

For retail businesses, the Online Retail Scheme was introduced by my Department in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland as part of the ongoing work of the Retail Forum. The Online Retail Scheme was developed in response to an identified need to drive a step change in online capability in the retail sector. Since 2018, more than 700 projects from retailers have been approved for funding through six rounds of competitive calls, including two pilot rounds of the Online Retail Scheme. A new call of the scheme is expected in 2023.

This Scheme aims to develop the resilience of the domestic retail enterprise sector through enhancing online sales capabilities to drive productivity and increase competitiveness and subsequently scale businesses in international markets.

As part of the Digital Europe Programme, work is ongoing on Ireland’s network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs). These hubs will support digital transformation for SMEs by encouraging the adoption of the latest advances in three key digital technologies: Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and High-Performance Computing.

Work is also under way on a Digital Portal to demystify digital and support businesses on the digital adoption journey. This portal will help businesses to self-assess their digital needs, as well as signposting to training, resources, and funding options that will help them to digitalise, and will be open to all businesses.