Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Since 2017, Enterprise Ireland on behalf of government has administered a number of successful schemes supporting the expansion of our regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. To date over a €130m has been invested, resulting in a network of EI supported projects, in such sectors as agri-food, food-innovation, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, energy and the bioeconomy.

EI is committed to strengthening the regional asset base, supporting new job creation, new enterprises and driving exports through expansion of regional enterprise. For example, in Deputy Smith’s own constituency, over €10m in funding has been allocated to capital projects and to new programmes supporting innovative clusters and enterprise accelerators such as Cavan Digital Hub and Bioconnect in Monaghan. Furthermore, both Cavan and Monaghan benefitted from the Enterprise Centre Scheme and previous Community Enterprise Centre scheme.

I am pleased that earlier this week I launched Enterprise Ireland's new Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme with €145m available to applicants. The aim of the scheme is to accelerate economic growth across all regions with a focus on enterprise development.

The Smart Regions Scheme is a mix of measures, providing an opportunity for newly built infrastructure, new programme supports and direct assistance that will encourage new innovative projects. It is designed to be enterprise led and aligned with existing priorities identified by the Regional Enterprise Plan groups across the country.

The Smart Regions Scheme will have four streams, and will support:

1. Local infrastructure projects

2. Innovation clusters and consortia

3. Services to SMEs to drive Innovative Solutions

4. Feasibility & Priming Grants

The Scheme is co-financed by the EU's European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and details are available on EI’s homepage.