Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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88. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline the priority areas for his Department to increase the number of small and medium enterprises that export, with specific attention given to SMEs exporting to continental Europe and North America.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22020/23]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s position as a small economy means that it is essential for our economic resilience that Irish enterprises realise opportunities in global markets. As an agency of my Department, Enterprise Ireland (EI) is responsible for helping prospective and emerging exporters to build company scale and expand their reach.

In line with the Government’s White Paper on enterprise, EI's Strategy 2022-2024 sets out a number of initiatives to create resilient, internationally focused Irish enterprises and ambitious targets are set for export growth and market diversification of the EI client base. This includes growing the total value of exports reported by EI client companies on an annual basis and driving diversification with 70% of their exports going to destinations outside of the UK market.

The Agency assists firms to build their capabilities in the areas of sales and marketing, pricing, market intelligence, talent attraction and in-market advice.

EI's international office network plays a crucial role in delivering in-market supports by assisting companies with market and competitor intelligence, identification of new opportunities, providing introductions to key industry and sectoral decision makers, support for building key customer relationships and advice on partnering strategies.

Work is ongoing to build digital sales and marketing capability in enterprises, to maximise growth in sales via global online marketplaces, embracing digital opportunities as a key export growth enabler for Irish enterprise.

The Agency’s Market Discovery Fund, part of its suite of Sales and Marketing supports, provides support for companies to take their first steps into new markets, providing funding for research, trade show attendance and market development. EI is also supporting new exporters to the Eurozone region under the ‘Enter the Eurozone’ programme, and through identification and realisation of future market opportunities. To accelerate diversification into new markets, the Agency has recently launched the Post-Brexit: Market Growth & Diversification Grant, the aim of which is to help clients that are impacted by Brexit to identify new market opportunities, develop a market entry plan and grow exports in markets outside of the UK including North America and Europe.

EI's international trade promotion, sector marketing and international trade events programme continues to provide an opportunity for companies to build their export journey. Working with Team Ireland, my Department through EI will co-ordinate and promote over 100 trade events and missions in significant international and local markets annually in 2023 and 2024 providing an opportunity for companies to start and scale their export growth.