Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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131. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Office grants awarded to businesses in Kildare north in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64191/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland have advised that 2025 figures for Kildare will not be available until the beginning of 2026. However, in 2024 payments to Enterprise Ireland clients totalled over €4.3m; this included €4.1 million in non-infrastructural payments and over €200K in infrastructural payments.

Enterprise Ireland launched its new strategy “Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally (2025–2029)” earlier this year. This strategy prioritises regional enterprise development, innovation, and sustainability and building the capability of Irish companies to grow in world markets. Over 60 percent of all EI client company employment is outside Dublin. As of 2024, there were 9,260 employed in EI client companies based in Kildare.

Enterprise Ireland is an active member of the Mid-East Regional Enterprise Plan Steering Group with partners including the Local Authorities. The plan includes actions across the three Mid East counties (Kildare, Wicklow, and Meath).

With regard to Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), at present only provisional figures for 2025 are available. To date, 70 projects have been approved for Kildare totalling €848,423.81.

The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) located in the 31 Local Authorities, are a key partner for small businesses in Ireland, helping them to identify and tackle their controllable costs. The LEO in County Kildare is actively engaged with their local business community, working to promote a suite of supports designed to assist small businesses to reduce their costs and become more productive and more competitive.