Peadar Tóibín
Question:44. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the level of funding provided in 2020 and to date in 2021 to local enterprise boards. [52009/21]
View answerDáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 November 2021
44. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the level of funding provided in 2020 and to date in 2021 to local enterprise boards. [52009/21]
View answerIn 2020 the Local Enterprise Offices were in receipt of approximately €77m (€76,992,462) in funding from my Department.
The initial budget of €33.5m was understandably increased to provide sufficient funding to allow the LEOs to assist businesses from all sectors to deal with the issues that COVID presented. This included the provision of €27.4m to the Business Continuity Vouchers Scheme which offered businesses with up to 50 employees, across all sectors, a voucher of up to €2,500 in third party consultancy costs to help mitigate the impact of COVID -19 and plan for their recovery.
In 2021, the core budget for the Local Enterprise Offices was set at €48m which included a provision of €6m set aside for COVID -19 measures, plus an additional €10.2m in capital carryover to meet liabilities from the Trading Online Voucher Scheme which transferred into my department in January this year.
The Local Enterprise Offices have thus far received just over €39m (€39,089,260) of this funding.