Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 January 2018
624. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications received for the recently announced regional enterprise development fund, by county; and the location and name of applicants. [54717/17]
View answer625. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the criteria used for the regional enterprise development fund; and the steps available to persons who were unsuccessful in this round of funding. [54718/17]
View answer626. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if officials from her Department will meet with the unsuccessful applicants to advise them on applications for future rounds of funding in the REDF or similar schemes. [54719/17]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 624 to 626, inclusive, together.
On 11 December last, I announced the results of the first round of the new competitive Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF).
The REDF is a €60 million competitive fund launched by Enterprise Ireland in 2017, with funding being made available over the period 2017-2020 under two competitive calls.
The Fund, which is an open national competitive call to support regional projects, is provided by my Department, through Enterprise Ireland and is a key action to support the Regional Action Plan for Jobs and the Action Plan for Rural Development.
Twenty-one successful applicants representing all regions of the country secured up to €30.5m in funding for their projects in the first competitive call.
75 applications were received by Enterprise Ireland in response to the first call, county locations of which are set out in Table 1.
Applicants are entitled to a certain level of privacy; therefore, Enterprise Ireland is not in a position to release the names of unsuccessful applicants.
A list of successful projects by region/county is detailed in Table 2.
Table 1: Number of Applications Per County
|
County |
No of Applications |
|
Carlow |
3 |
|
Cavan |
2 |
|
Clare |
1 |
|
Cork |
8 |
|
Donegal |
2 |
|
Dublin |
14 |
|
Galway |
7 |
|
Kerry |
7 |
|
Kildare |
2 |
|
Kilkenny |
2 |
|
Laois |
1 |
|
Leitrim |
2 |
|
Limerick |
7 |
|
Louth |
2 |
|
Mayo |
1 |
|
Meath |
1 |
|
Monaghan |
2 |
|
Roscommon |
1 |
|
Tipperary |
4 |
|
Waterford |
2 |
|
Westmeath |
2 |
|
Wexford |
1 |
|
Wicklow |
1 |
|
Grand Total |
75 |
Table 2: Successful Projects by Region/County
|
Projects Recommended for approval |
Location |
|
Northern & Western Region |
|
|
Monaghan County Enterprise Fund |
Monaghan |
|
Leitrim County Enterprise Fund |
Leitrim/Cavan/Longford |
|
Donegal Digital Innovation CLG |
Donegal |
|
BIA Innovator Campus CLG |
Galway |
|
Southern Region |
|
|
Irish Bioeconomy Foundation CLG |
Tipperary |
|
Emerald Aerocluster CLG |
Limerick/Shannon/National |
|
Insurtech Network Centre DAC |
Carlow |
|
ThreeD (Design Develop Disseminate) DAC |
Waterford |
|
Agritech Centre of Excellence CLG |
Kerry |
|
RDI Hub CLG |
Kerry/National |
|
Cork Urban Enterprises CLG |
Cork |
|
IT@Cork CLG |
Cork |
|
KerrySciTech CLG |
Kerry/Cork |
|
Sneem Innovation & Technology Services CLG |
Kerry |
|
MOL TEIC CLG |
Kerry |
|
Eastern & Midlands Region |
|
|
County Kildare Community Network Company CLG |
Kildare |
|
Dublin Enterprise & Technology Centre CLG |
Dublin |
|
Ghala DAC |
Dublin/National |
|
Social & Local Enterprise Alliance DAC |
Dublin |
|
BPO Cluster Ireland CLG |
Dublin/National |
|
Irish Manufacturing Research CLG |
Westmeath/National |
|
Total number of projects |
21 |
All applications were evaluated against the following criteria:
|
- |
Evaluation Criteria |
Weighting |
|
1 |
Impacts and value for money |
30% |
|
2 |
Collaboration and Participation |
20% |
|
3 |
Viability and sustainability |
20% |
|
4 |
Building Regional Strengths |
20% |
|
5 |
Significance for innovation and Capability Building |
10% |
|
|
Total |
100% |
Officials from Enterprise Ireland will meet with unsuccessful applicants and provide feedback on the application, aligned to the publicly referenced evaluation criteria. As this fund was administered as a competitive process, decisions are final. Enterprise Ireland will work with the applicant to advise them on a revised application if they decide to apply again under the second competitive call, and advise them on future rounds of funding and/or other schemes.
The second call under the REDF scheme is expected to issue in Q1 2018 and will fund projects from the remaining balance of the €60m budget available.
