Shay Brennan (Dublin Rathdown, Fianna Fail)
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62. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the specific metrics his Department is using to measure the impact of the digital transition fund on Irish small and medium enterprises’ digital competitiveness; and if it is planned to extend this initiative beyond the current planned expiry date in 2026.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6683/25]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Digital Transition Fund was established as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan with the objective of boosting the use of digital technologies in enterprises.

The Grow Digital Portal was developed under the Digital Transition Fund and launched in July 2024. This Portal provides businesses with a toolkit to help identify the opportunities that digitalisation offers them and the supports that are available to assist them on their journey.

A suite of direct to company supports is also available to enterprises through Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta under the Digital Transition Fund. This is in addition to other digital supports available through the Local Enterprise Offices such as the Grow Digital Voucher scheme.

This funding is in place to help companies at all stages of their digital journey – from the early days of simply going online to more advanced digitalisation of products, processes, supply chains and business models. This will bring about productivity gains, access to new markets, increased innovation, and improved competitiveness.

The Digital Transition Fund was specifically designed to aid the achievement of the high-level workstreams of Ireland’s National Digital Strategy, Harnessing Digital , and Ireland’s contribution to the EU Digital Decade targets as they relate to the digitalisation of enterprise.

The target set out in the National Digital Strategy is that at least 800 businesses will be supported by 2026 under the Digital Transition Fund. We are on track to meet this target with 539 companies already approved for funding under the Digital Transition Fund as of the end of 2024, of which 504 are SMEs.

The Digital Transition Fund, together with other supports aimed at accelerating the digitalisation of enterprise, is also contributing to the achievement of other targets set out in the National Digital Strategy in relation to digital intensity and the adoption of AI, cloud and big data by enterprises.

Ireland’s target for the proportion of SMEs with a basic level of digital intensity is 90% by 2030. The European Commission reported a score of 66% for Ireland for this measure in the 2024 Digital Economy and Society Index, and this is ahead of the EU average of 57.7%.

Irelands has set a target for 75% of enterprises to adopt AI, cloud or big data by 2030. The European Commission reported a score of 64.1% for Ireland for this measure in the 2024 Digital Economy and Society Index, and this is ahead of the EU average of 54.6%.

The Digital Transition Fund is underpinned by funds from the EU’s Resilience and Recovery Facility. There are no plans to extend the EU Facility beyond its expiry date in 2026 and as such no plans to extend the Digital Transition Fund beyond 2026.

However, I absolutely recognise that we will need to continue driving the digital transition of Irish based enterprise to ensure Ireland’s future competitiveness. In that regard, please be assured that supports will continue to be made available to business for their digitalisation activities after the Digital Transition Fund comes to an end.