Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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113. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his views on the Programme for Government commitment to explore ways to better support social enterprise organisations. [37766/25]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I would like to acknowledge the valuable work of social enterprises, and the meaningful impact they have on the lives of people in our communities. They frequently work to support disadvantaged groups such as the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, the Traveller community, etc., or to address issues such as childcare, food poverty, social housing, our ageing population or environmental matters.

In July 2024, my Department launched Trading for Impact, the second national social enterprise policy. Trading for Impact has been designed to cultivate and sustain a strong and impactful social enterprise sector in Ireland that enriches the social, environmental, and economic wellbeing of our communities.

Implementation of Trading for Impact policy actions is taking place in partnership with the sector through the ‘Trading for Impact Stakeholder Engagement Group’ which brings together key stakeholders to co-ordinate input into the delivery of the policy. Indeed, commitments contained in the Programme for Government 2025 - Securing Ireland's Future will be taken into consideration during the implementation of the policy. Also, my Department is always exploring ways to better support social enterprise organisations.

The Department already provides funding across a number of schemes that social enterprise organisations may be eligible for. These include the Community Services Programme (CSP), the Social Inclusion and Activation Programme (SICAP), and LEADER. Other organisations such as Rethink Ireland ( ) and Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (www.socialentrepreneurs.ie/ ) also provide advice, funding and training for organisations.

There are a wide range of business supports available to social enterprises through the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), provided they operate on a commercial basis and meet the eligibility criteria of the scheme for which they wish to apply. More information on LEOs can be found here: www.localenterprise.ie/

Finally, it should be noted that my Department recently launched the New Solutions Social Innovation Fund. The core focus of this fund is to further develop the social innovation ecosystem in Ireland and provide capacity building supports to social innovation projects, including social enterprises.

The fund will also provide grant funding and non-financial supports to innovative projects at different stages of the social innovation development curve, including pilots and scaling projects. The scaling up grant application process, which will be managed by Pobal, was launched on 16 June. The pilot grants phase will be launched in early 2026.