Peadar Tóibín
Question:225 Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the grants or funding available to a person (details supplied). [30926/11]
View answerTuesday, 25 October 2011
Questions (210)
Written answers
My Department does not provide direct funding or grants to businesses but rather provides funding to a number of State Agencies, including the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) and Enterprise Ireland, through whom assistance is delivered directly to businesses. The role of the CEBs throughout the country is to provide a source of support for micro-enterprise in the start-up and expansion phases, to promote and develop indigenous micro-enterprise potential and to stimulate economic activity and entrepreneurship at local level. The CEBs unique role positions them as a first point of contact for persons wishing to set up in business. The Boards give priority to manufacturing and internationally traded services, and support micro-enterprise businesses through both financial (grants) and non-financial (advice, training and mentoring) "soft supports", subject to certain eligibility criteria and provided that the proposed projects have the capacity to achieve commercial viability.
CEBs can assist in the establishment, and/or development, of new and existing micro-enterprise businesses subject to the following main eligibility criteria:
the enterprise must be in the commercial sphere;
the enterprise must demonstrate a market for the product/service;
the enterprise must have a capacity for growth and new job creation;
the enterprise must not employ more than 10 people;
the enterprise must not give rise to deadweight or displacement.
It is considered inappropriate to support areas such as retail enterprises, personal services (e.g. hairdressers, gardeners, etc), professional services (accountants, solicitors, etc) lacking export potential, construction, etc, as it is considered that these generally give rise to unacceptable deadweight (where projects would have proceeded anyway) and/or displacement (where the projects simply displace business from other players in the market) concerns.
Longford CEB have advised me that the business promoter has availed of the soft supports offered by the CEB and, whilst not every business may be eligible for direct financial grant support, the services of the CEB remain available to the business as appropriate and the promoter is therefore advised to remain in contact with the CEB going forward. The Board may be contacted at: Longford County Enterprise Board, Longford Enterprise Centre, Templemichael, Ballinalee Road, Longford. Phone: 043 3342757, Email: info@longfordceb.ie.