Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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55. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment given recent research from Social Enterprise Ireland revealing challenges for social enterprises in accessing local enterprise office financial supports, whether eligibility guidelines will be reviewed to give commercially viable social enterprises the same access as private businesses; and if she will commit to a timeline for this review. [37651/24]

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.

My colleague Minister Humphreys launched Trading for Impact 2024-2027 - Ireland's National Social Enterprise Policy, last July, to build on the achievements of Ireland's first social enterprise policy. This policy was developed following widespread consultation with stakeholders, including officials in my Department

Social enterprises are eligible for Local Enterprise Office (LEO) assistance, provided they operate on a commercial basis and meet the eligibility criteria of the scheme for which they wish to apply.

The LEOs’ range of lean, green and digital supports are designed to help businesses save time, money and energy and remain competitive into the future.

Many social enterprises may be eligible for supports such as the free Digital for Business consultancy, Grow Digital Voucher, free Green for Business consultancy, the Energy Efficiency Grant, and the LEO suite of training and mentoring programmes.

There has been positive engagement between officials in my Department, the Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, and officials in the Department of Rural and Community Development who have responsibility for social enterprise policy. This engagement has led to the arrangement of a webinar last month for training purposes for LEO staff on the topic of social enterprises.

The Deputy will also be aware of the National Enterprise Hub which provides a centralised signposting service for over 230 Government or agency supports in areas such as decarbonisation, digitalisation, skills development and innovation. I would encourage social enterprises to also use this new service.