Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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16. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment how many businesses in Cork received emergency supports following floods; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51375/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On the 24th of October 2023, the Government activated enhanced emergency business flooding humanitarian schemes that provides support of up to €100,000 to business, community, voluntary and sporting bodies. The Schemes now covers areas impacted by recent severe weather events including Counties Cork, Galway Waterford, Limerick, Louth, Wexford, and Kilkenny.

These schemes provide urgent assistance to businesses that were unable, through no fault of their own, to get insurance to help with the costs of repairing the damage caused by flooding.

The Irish Red Cross are administering and making payments under the Schemes on behalf of my Department. The Red Cross has distributed a total of €636,232 to businesses in Cork as of Friday the 17th of November. This funding has been administered to a total of 44 businesses.

The Red Cross is currently processing applications and the number of applications by businesses community, voluntary and sporting bodies in Cork is expected to rise as the closing date for receipt of applications is Friday the 15th of December 2023.

It is a priority of Government to provide the necessary emergency funding to those affected by these terrible flooding events.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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19. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of applications made under the scheme to assist businesses with the price of kerosene in counties Roscommon and Galway, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51206/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On 6th September this year, I launched the Business Users Support Scheme for Kerosene to provide support to businesses that were impacted by significant increases in the cost of this fuel following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The scheme provided eligible businesses with a payment to reimburse them for half of their increased costs in the period from 1st March to 31st December 2022, compared to the equivalent period in 2021.

The implementation of this scheme delivered on a commitment that I made earlier this year to ensure that businesses that rely on kerosene for heating purposes are supported in the same manner as those that have already received support in respect of increased electricity and natural gas costs under the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme.

The Business Users Support Scheme for Kerosene closed to applications on the 31st October this year.

Although the Scheme is now closed to applications, the approval process is continuing and will be concluded shortly with payments made by the end of the year.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) play an extremely important role providing their services direct to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country. They act as a ‘first stop shop’ at a local level providing expert advice and guidance, financial assistance, and offer a ‘signposting’ service for all government supports available to business owners throughout the country.

It is this unique position that makes the LEOs so effective, supporting a diverse range of new and innovative businesses to start and grow in every region, as evidenced by the year-on-year employment growth of LEO client companies.

The existing national assistance enterprise model has allowed the LEO network to deliver effective national programmes consistent with enterprise policy, designed and overseen by Enterprise Ireland’s Centre of Excellence, at a local level.

National campaigns, such as the recently launched ‘All in a Day’s Work’ campaign, focus on how the Lean, Green and Digital products offered by the LEOs can help businesses to save time, money, and energy, while the LEO Mentor Programme provides LEO Clients with the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners.

2024 is the ten-year anniversary of the LEOs. To tie into this, officials in my department have commenced work on the development of a LEO policy statement that will set out the future direction for the LEOs in the coming years while implementing the White paper on Enterprise to further enhance the services available through the LEOs.