Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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238. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to improve awareness and understanding among policymakers and enterprise support agencies about the role and value of social enterprises, in light of the concerns of an organisation (details supplied) about a lack of understanding within the enterprise ecosystem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36073/24]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Social Enterprises are an important and growing part of Ireland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, creating jobs and stimulating local economic activity, and are recognised as an integral part of Ireland’s broad enterprise policy landscape.

Policy responsibility for social enterprises lies with the Department of Rural and Community Development and in July this year my colleague Minister Heather Humphreys launched ‘Trading for Impact 2024-2027’ -Ireland’s National Social Enterprise Policy which will help sustain and grow the social enterprise sector.

In May this year I launched the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Policy Statement, which outlines how LEOs will align their work with the priorities of the White Paper on Enterprise going forward, setting out the roadmap and future direction of LEOs. The LEO Policy Statement affirms the intention to grow the reach of the LEOs to provide support to all small businesses including Social Enterprises.

There has been positive engagement between my Department, Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (SERI), and the Department of Rural and Community Development in recent months. Enterprise Ireland and SERI have continued to engage over the summer, and an information webinar will be arranged later this month, which will be attended by representatives from all 31 Local Enterprise Offices and SERI. The aim of the webinar is to provide clarity on the range of supports available to social enterprises through the LEOs and the eligibility criteria of these supports.