Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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294. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans in place for the development of new enterprise hubs in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50521/26]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that, since 2017, my Department has approved over €150 million in regional enterprise development funding through Enterprise Ireland schemes, supporting enterprise ecosystems and regional job creation across all parts of the country.

With regards to enterprise hubs specifically, it should be noted that this funding has contributed to more than 60 pieces of physical infrastructure across the country in the same period, a clear indication of this Government’s commitment to the development of the sector.

In Kerry specifically, this includes Regional Enterprise Development Funding of €3.8 million for the RDI Hub in Killorglin, and €297,000 for the Sneem Enterprise Centre, as well as other investment in areas such as clustering and training activities.

The most recent Regional funding scheme, the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme, provided for four streams of support one of which was for infrastructure such as, Enterprise Hubs. This is European Regional Development Fund scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland, which closed for new applications on the 12th of June.

All applications made before this date are under consideration by Enterprise Ireland and will go through an independent verification and approval process before the remainder of the funding available under the scheme is allocated in accordance with this process. It would be inappropriate to comment on what might be approved under this fund while this process is ongoing.

Following the closure of the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme and its final funding allocations, my Department intends to review previous regional enterprise schemes to thoroughly consider the impact and value for money of investment so far in the sector and consider what the best approach to such funding might be going forward. This is particularly timely now that the Regional Enterprise Development funding for major projects, which began in 2017, has been in place for long enough to examine some longer-term outcomes.

Decisions on how to structure future funding models in order to achieve the most effective outcomes will be made in the light of this review.