Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 January 2024
252. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the funding for the National AI Strategy and how this is being delivered; and for a year-by-year breakdown of funding. [2828/24]
View answer253. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the total amount of funding provided to businesses for support digitisation over the past five years; and the funding allocated to support firms with digitisation in 2024. [2831/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 252 and 253 together.
Under the National Digital Strategy, Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework, published early in 2022, Government has committed to driving a step change in the digitalisation of enterprise in Ireland. Growing the use of digital technologies by businesses will help to build the resilience of our enterprise base as we look to future-proof our economy. For businesses, investment in digitalisation brings increased efficiencies, easier access to and better services for customers, and greater cybersecurity and scalability. A number of different schemes are in place, administered by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Local Enterprise Offices to support businesses of all sizes on their digital journey.
The National AI Strategy, AI – Here for Good , has been in place since 2021 and a progress report on its implementation was published in August 2023. This whole-of-government Strategy includes actions not only for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment but also for a number of Government Departments and state agencies. My Department has a particular role in delivering the actions related to enterprise adoption of AI, including enterprise innovation. Details of the funding allocated to enterprise digitalisation, which includes AI, are set out below.
The Digital Transition Fund is an €85m fund under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), running from 2022-2026 funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The fund is administered by EI, IDA Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta through a range of schemes to boost uptake of digital technology. Draw down to date is €4.2 million. The provisional allocation for 2024 is €10.5 million, subject to approval by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR).
Part-funded by the by Digital Transition Fund and by the Digital Europe Programme are Ireland’s four European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs), one of which, CeADAR, has been designated Ireland’s innovation hub for AI. EDIHs are an EU-wide network providing digitalisation advice at low or no cost to SMEs and public sector organisations to support uptake of technologies, including AI and data analytics, and to enhance their cybersecurity and digital skills. The Irish EDIHs drew down €7m in the period 2022-2023. The provisional allocation for 2024 is €4.9 million, subject to DPENDR approval.
The Network of 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) support small businesses to attain basic digital intensity to help them to save time, money, and energy. Supports for digitalisation available through LEOs include the Trading Online Voucher (TOV), a voucher of up to €2,500 with 50% co-funding by the applicant, and Digital for Business , for businesses with up to 50 employees in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors to prepare and implement a plan for the adoption of digital tools and techniques. The TOV allocations to date are:
2021: €12.5 million,
2022: €3 million,
2023: €3 million.
Allocations for Digital for Business to date are:
2022: €0.9million,
2023: €1.1 million.
For both schemes, the 2024 allocation will be determined when the LEO Budget is presented and approved by the Enterprise Ireland Board.
Enterprise Ireland runs a number of schemes to support digitalisation of business. The Online Retail Scheme administered since 2019 supports Irish retailers in developing a more competitive online offer increase their customer base and build a more resilient business in the domestic and global marketplace both online and offline. Payments from 2019-2023 amount to €10.3 million. Future funding under this scheme is currently under review. The Digitalisation Voucher has seen payments of €2.04 million in 2022 and €0.46 million in 2023. Payments under the Digital Marketing Capacity Scheme from 2019-2023 totalled €4.59 million.
The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) , established in 2018, is one of four National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027 funds, and is aimed at encouraging collaboration and innovation in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies on a commercial basis, in order to tackle national and global challenges. It is managed by the Department and administered by Enterprise Ireland. Although not exclusively focused on digital technologies, the fund encourages projects that complement the priority enterprise policy objective on digital transformation as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise. There is a particular focus on SMEs, with SME participation a mandatory requirement for each collaborative project. Six DTIF calls for projects have been held to date, ranging in value from €8 million to €95 million, with a total of €365 million allocated to 103 collaborative projects to date.
