Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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939. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the status of the €250 million seed and venture capital scheme led by Enterprise Ireland; the intended timeline for deployment; and how it will contribute to the Government’s 300,000 job creation target by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43338/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Seed and Venture Capital Scheme, was established in 1994. In July 2024, Minister Burke launched the sixth 5-year programme of the Scheme, for the years 2025-2029 inclusive.

Enterprise Ireland administers the Scheme. Following the first open call for the current Scheme, prospective fund managers are being assessed for participation in the Scheme. EI expects to make first commitments in Q4 2025.

Access to finance through the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme has played an important role in developing the talented pipeline of innovative, high-growth Irish-owned companies that we have seen in recent years. Over €1.4 billion has been invested in over 600 Irish owned companies by funds supported by Enterprise Ireland since the Seed and Venture Capital programme first commenced 30 years ago.

My Department recently commissioned a review of the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme between 2013 to 2022 with the evaluation findings strongly positive about the relevance and impact of the scheme. The key findings of the report by UK based company SQW Limited show that the Scheme had a significant impact on investee firms in terms of employment, R&D expenditure, company valuations and likelihood of securing follow-on funding.

SQW estimates for the economic benefits (realised and expected) associated with SVC-backed Irish firms over 10 years from 2013 to 2022 are €2.05 billion in Gross Value Added (in real terms) with approximately 4,300 additional jobs created or 28 jobs per SVC-backed firm on average. It is expected that the economic benefits will continue to accrue as the latest iteration of the Scheme is deployed over the next five years.