Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
808. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the next tranche of funding will be made available under a scheme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8526/20]
View answer820. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to local authorities that are oversubscribed and-or have exhausted grants regarding the €2,500 trading online voucher (details supplied); if he will release further funding to local enterprise offices; if local enterprise offices have requested further funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9010/20]
View answer822. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will issue local enterprise offices with an additional and increased allocation of trading online vouchers in view of the fact that there is a significant demand for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9043/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 808, 820 and 822 together.
The Trading Online Voucher Scheme is funded by my Department and delivered nationwide in partnership with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and the 31 Local Enterprise Offices. The Scheme offers skills training, mentoring and a grant of up to €2,500 to help small and micro-businesses to develop their ecommerce capability.
In April the Government provided an additional €3.3m to the scheme bringing the total available in 2020 to €5.6m. In addition, new flexibilities to the Scheme were introduced including reducing the requirement for co-funding from 50% to 10% and allowing businesses to apply for a second voucher of up to €2,500 where they have successfully utilised their first one.
There has been a positive response to these changes and significant uptake of the Scheme. In that context my Department is currently reviewing the funding requirements of the Scheme.
