Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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In July 2017, Government assigned policy responsibility for social enterprise to the newly established Department of Rural and Community Development, and first National Social Enterprise Policy was published by my Department in 2019. Following on from that first policy, Trading for Impact was launched by then Minister Heather Humphreys in July 2024. Trading for Impact has been designed, in partnership with the sector, to cultivate and sustain a strong and impactful social enterprise sector in Ireland that enriches the social, environmental, and economic wellbeing of our communities.

Since the launch of the first National Social Enterprise Policy in 2019, the Social Enterprise Unit of my Department has spent over €16m on supporting social enterprise policy in Ireland.

• €14.9m in Dormant Accounts Funding has been used to provide capital supports schemes, capacity building schemes, training and mentoring programmes, and awareness raising funding to support growing and sustaining social enterprises.
• €1.3m has been used to provide current expenditure supporting the implementation of policy, including spending on an annual national conference, networking events, research, awareness raising and capacity building.

This allocation includes the DAF Growing Social Enterprise Scheme worth €4m which I announced, together with Minister Calleary, earlier this year. This scheme provides funding of between €1,500 and €97,000 to 125 social enterprises to enable them to expand or deliver goods and services to their communities by supporting projects such as building works, repairs and refurbishments or the purchase of new machinery, vehicles or equipment. This funding represents the allocated DAF funding for Social Enterprises for 2024 and 2025.

My Department has also supported a Dormant Accounts funded ‘Hybrid Social Lending Scheme’ of €890,000 over a number of years that provides a blend of a re-payable loan, a grant and capacity building training to social enterprises in partnership with Community Finance Ireland and Rethink Ireland.

Social Enterprises also receive supports from a number of other sources across my Department including the Community Services Programme (CSP), LEADER and also SICAP.

My Department will also be providing support to social enterprises through the use of European Social Fund Plus funding, the core focus of which, initially, is to support the development of a Social Innovation Hub. The Hub will help develop the social innovation ecosystem in Ireland and provide capacity building supports to social innovation projects, which may also be social enterprises. Through the Hub, supports will also be provided in the form of grants 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 is being managed by Pobal on behalf of my Department. It’s planned that the pilot grants phase will be launched in early 2026.

The ongoing impact of the national policies since 2019 can also be seen in the provision of supports by a number of Departments and organisations outside of my Department which assist social enterprises. I would advise any such enterprise seeking support to contact their nearest Local Development Company (LDC) for advice. LDCs can provide details of funding available across many Government Departments, and provide details of training, mentoring and networking opportunities that may be available. There are also a wide range of business supports available to social enterprises who qualify under the relevant criteria through the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) and the National Enterprise Hub. Other organisations such as Rethink Ireland and Social Entrepreneurs Ireland may also be able to provide advice, funding and training.

I hope the Deputy will agree that the information above represents a diversity of funding opportunities and supports for social enterprises, to enable them to grow and develop.