John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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82. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if Budget 2025 included any additional supports for small businesses seeking to develop their digital skills or their use of AI. [40411/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2025 I am pleased to say that I secured funding to continue to support measures that assist small businesses on their digital journey.

Funding secured for the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in 2025 will be made available to provide for the Digital for Business programme, which has been extended to small businesses with up to 50 employees. This free consultancy support helps businesses prepare and implement a plan for the adoption of digital tools and techniques across the business, including AI.

Funding will also be made available to businesses through the new Grow Digital Voucher. This is also available to small businesses with up to 50 employees and provides up to €5,000 in funding towards a wide variety of digital interventions that will support businesses on their digitalisation journey. Eligible expenditure under this scheme includes e-commerce software, e-invoicing software, cyber security software, as well as analytics software including Artificial Intelligence systems. This represents a significant expansion on the Trading Online Voucher. We want to get the message out that deploying digital tools and technologies, including AI-based tools, can help our small businesses to save time and money, and ultimately make them more competitive.

Government is also committed to developing the skills and human capital necessary to support the digital transformation of small businesses. My Government colleague, Minister Patrick O'Donovan, has committed through his Department to an investment of €20 million for a skills package in 2025 to build and retain a talented labour force, better foster lifelong learning in workplaces; and to deliver training programmes that directly assist in meeting current and future skills needs, including in addressing digital transformation and within our SMEs.

My Department has also recently launched the Grow Digital Portal, a website with a 5-minute assessment that helps a business to assess their progress on digitalisation and identifies any opportunities for improvement, as well presenting relatable case studies of businesses that have benefited from technology adoption.