Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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45. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions he is taking to address commercial vacancy. [21367/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Government is committed to bringing forward measures to support small businesses in every region, county and town in Ireland.

While my Department does not fund schemes to address commercial vacancy, I understand that some local authorities have introduced locally designed business incentive schemes which promote the use of vacant commercial property.

These schemes are complementary to the work of the Local Enterprise Offices, which play an extremely important role at local level, providing their services direct to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship across the country. As business units within each of the 31 Local Authorities, LEOs support the development of economic strategies such as the Local Economic and Community Plans and ensure that an enterprise perspective is brought to bear on various Local Authority and regional plans and frameworks. LEOs also act as a catalyst for economic development by driving collaboration with the broader enterprise ecosystem at the local level.