Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 October 2014
11. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the policy measures he plans to roll out over the next 12 months in addition to the online trading voucher to maximise indigenous companies' sales through e-commerce. [39083/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraA recent report on Ireland's Digital Future, published by UPC and Amárach research, estimates that the value of Irish on-line consumer spending in 2014 will be €6 billion, and that this will rise to nearly €13 billion by 2020. However, 60% of on-line purchases made by Irish consumers currently go abroad.
Only 23% of companies trade on-line. Therefore, it is imperative that we encourage more businesses to trade on-line in order to save jobs in the face on on-line competition from abroad.
E-commerce should be an element in every enterprise's business. All of the Agencies under the aegis of our Department actively support enterprises in developing such business plans. The Local Enterprise Offices have been supporting enterprises in this area for several years. They provide mentoring support and other practical assistance. The NSAI have encouraged businesses to adapt new technologies through iSwift. Solas has developed specialist courses in managing ecommerce for SMEs. Many of our start-ups facilitated by EI are specifically using E-commerce as the platform to drive their business models. Enterprise Ireland's Internet Marketing Unit is focused on helping export-focused clients across all sectors to exploit the internet as a route to market and to assist them in developing a strategy that will shape how they do business online.
Encouraging more companies to conduct their business through e-commerce is also one of the key strands of the Government's National Digital Strategy, which falls under the remit of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White, TD. The National Digital Strategy envisages that an awareness and promotion campaign, highlighting the value to business of trading on-line, will be developed in partnership with industry, community stakeholders and Ireland's Digital Champion, David Puttnam. The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources also supports internet start-up companies through the Digital Hub Development Agency and the National Digital Research Centre. The Deputy will of course also be aware of that Department's ongoing development of the National Broadband Strategy.
As the Deputy acknowledges we have introduced a Trading On-Line Voucher scheme as a specific measure to encourage a step-change in Irish business' engagement with E-commerce, which is administered by the Local Enterprise Offices, forms part of the Government's programme to get more businesses selling their products and services over the internet. The scheme will support 2,000 small businesses to trade on-line over a period of two years. However, we expect that these businesses will act as exemplars for other small companies to start trading on-line.
Preliminary feedback from the first 50 companies that took part in the pilot in Dublin indicates 70% of companies are getting more customer inquiries, 55% have had - or are expecting - more sales, and 60% expect to recruit extra staff within 12 months.
