Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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My officials clarified with the Deputy's office that this question relates to innovation vouchers and not digital innovation vouchers.

The Innovation Voucher Programme is funded by my Department under the Science and Technology Programme, through Enterprise Ireland. The Innovation Voucher Programme is designed to build links between Ireland's public knowledge providers (higher education institutions and research performing bodies) and small businesses and help to create a cultural shift in the small business community's approach to innovation.

The vouchers encourage companies and public knowledge providers to work together on specific innovation questions and projects related to a company’s needs and is available to the broadest number of companies. The nature of these projects will be such that they transfer knowledge that is new, thereby enabling a company to use this newly acquired knowledge to innovate a product, production process or service.

In that regard these vouchers are not provided to specifically migrate from copper to fibre broadband, rather they are focused on supporting SME innovation such as:

• new product/process development;
• new business model development;
• new service delivery and customer interface;
• new service development;
• tailored training in innovation management;
• innovation/technology audit.