Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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241. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way he plans to integrate social enterprises into a broader Government strategy for sustainable job creation and social cohesion, as advocated by an organisation (details supplied) in its pre-Budget 2025 submission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36177/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, 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.

The policy details five key objectives to sustain and grow social enterprise over the years 2024 to 2027, their rationale, and 57 actions which will be undertaken to deliver on these objectives.

i. Build awareness of Social Enterprise and its potential,

ii. Growing and Sustaining Social enterprise through government supports

iii. Supporting the Green Transition by Social Enterprises

iv. National and International Engagement to align social Enterprise Policy on a regional, EU and International level

v. Impact Measurement to improve levels and quality of data relating to social enterprise.

This Department is responsible for the delivery of four specific policy actions, and work has commenced on these actions. These are:

Action 15: To ensure consistency of approach to social enterprises across Local Enterprise Offices.

Action 16: To improve social enterprise access to Enterprise Ireland business supports such as the High Performing Start-up Scheme (HPSU), as appropriate.

Action 32: Progress the Co-operative Societies Bill 2022 which will provide improved legal formation options for social enterprises.

Action 40: Regional Enterprise Plan Steering Committees will consider the inclusion of any appropriate measures within the next cycle of plans to support the development of social enterprises.

In May this year Minister Burke and 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 this Department, Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, 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.

Minster Humphreys also announced the launch of the new €2m Dormant Accounts funded ‘Growing Social Enterprise' fund which is an action within the policy. The purpose of the fund is to provide capital supports that assist enterprises to achieve their social, environmental and economic objectives, and to improve their sustainability and impact. The fund will benefit up to 100 social enterprises nationwide, with grants ranging from €1,500 to €100,000.