Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to backing business and will continue to work closely with small businesses nationwide by supporting their growth, helping them to find new markets, stimulating job creation and helping them digitalise and decarbonise.

The 2023 Local Enterprise Offices Annual Employment Survey results are testament to this commitment. These jobs figures show that in 2023, the LEOs supported a total portfolio of 7,167 small businesses and account for 38,726 jobs across the country. 82% of these jobs are provided by businesses outside of Dublin - which again reflects our ambitions to balanced regional development.

This is the highest recorded number since the formation of the LEOs, with an average of 6% growth across the country. Last year there was growth in every region, representing the 10th year of consecutive jobs increases.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that in 2023, the three LEOs based in Cork financially assisted 630 local businesses and supported 3,268 jobs across Cork City and County.

The breakdown across the three Cork LEOs over the years in question is:

In 2022, 620 companies employing 3,159 people received grant assistance.

In 2021, 644 companies employing 2,847 people received grant assistance.

In 2020, 667 companies employing 3,027 people received grant assistance.

While these results only represent jobs supported by businesses who were in receipt of LEO grant assistance, many more jobs are created and sustained by enterprises which have received non-financial LEO supports. These include expert advice, one-to-one mentoring and training supports.

The LEOs also provide supports to help businesses address the priorities of exporting, decarbonisation and digitalisation. This is done through schemes such as the Trading Online Voucher, Green for Business, the Energy Efficiency Grant, Exporter Development and Digital for Business.