Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 June 2020
941. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of social enterprises in counties Laois and Offaly that have been awarded a grant from the social enterprise development fund; and the value of the grants. [10597/20]
View answerThe Social Enterprise Development Fund is a €1.6m fund which was established in 2018 by Social Innovation Fund Ireland (SIFI) in partnership with Local Authorities Ireland. It is funded by IPB Insurance and by my Department. Through the Dormant Accounts Fund, my Department provides match funding for all philanthropic donations raised by SIFI.
While the Social Enterprise Development Fund was initially due to run to the end of 2020, a further €1.6m in funding was announced in January of this year to ensure the initiative continues to 2022. €800,000 of this funding will be provided by my Department.
To date, no organisations from Counties Laois or Offaly have been awarded a grant from the Social Enterprise Development Fund. However, my Department has provided funding to social enterprises in Laois and Offaly through other schemes specifically targeting social enterprises.
For example, between December 2019 and January 2020 I announced funding to 4 social enterprises from Co. Laois and 6 social enterprises from Co. Offaly under the pilot Small Capital Grants Scheme for Social Enterprises.
Offaly Integrated Local Development Company was also successful in being awarded €33,720 to support training and mentoring of social enterprises under the pilot Training and Mentoring Scheme for Social Enterprises which I announced last December.
Details of the projects supported under these schemes are available at:
https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/a99ff0-small-capital-grants-for-social-enterprises/ (December 2019)
and
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/045094-small-grants-for-social-enterprises/ (January 2020)
