Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2018
62. Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the supports available to SMEs in County Louth to help them prepare for Brexit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5979/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) in the border regions are the first-stop-shop for anyone seeking guidance and support on starting or growing their business.
An extra €4 million in funding for the 31 LEOs in 2017 was allocated to fund a range of initiatives including Brexit supports across the country. These supports are aimed at strengthening the capacity of micro and small businesses to cope with the changing external environment, especially the impacts arising from Brexit. The supports include grants to assist LEO clients in diversifying their markets, targeted training and mentoring to address Brexit-related challenges and opportunities, as well as a Lean for Micro programme to help micro-enterprises to address competitive issues within their businesses. These supports are available throughout the country.
In addition, the six LEOs in the Border region are working together with their Northern Ireland counterparts under the EU Co-Innovate Programme. The aim of Co-Innovate is to give SMEs from the manufacturing and tradeable services sectors in the eligible regions the tools and tailored support to help them to innovate, differentiate and compete successfully.
In 2017 209,338 people were employed at Enterprise Ireland supported companies with Louth seeing a 5% increase on the 2016 figure.
Economic shocks, such as Brexit, places companies in the Border Region, whether exporting or not, in an area of uncertainty. It will drive companies to focus on increasing their competitiveness, innovative capability and product differentiation in parallel with targeting new export markets.
Activities currently being undertaken by Enterprise Ireland to ensure that client companies are resilient and agile include the following:
- Enterprise Ireland launched a new Market Discovery Fund to incentivise companies to research viable and sustainable market entry strategies in new geographic markets. This fund provides support towards internal and external costs incurred when researching new markets for products and services.
- Enterprise Ireland is working with its clients in the Border Region to drive to innovation activity via a number of supports that enable companies to diagnose their innovation readiness; that provides financial support for in-house R&D projects and also to foster collaborations between the research expertise within the Higher Education Sector and companies.
- Competitiveness is critical for companies to scale and internationalise. Enterprise Ireland is working with companies to identify and measure competitiveness issues and to support companies by providing access to a range of competitiveness building tools, including the Company Competitiveness Health Check, the Lean Offer and Green Offer.
Enterprise Ireland initiatives specifically aimed at mitigating the effects of Brexit include:
- The ‘Brexit SME Scorecard’, an interactive online platform which can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six business pillars. 1,909 companies have used this Scorecard as of mid-December 2017.
- The Be Prepared Grant, which supports the costs of SME clients in preparing a plan to mitigate risks and optimise opportunities arising from Brexit. This grant can be used to help cover consultancy, travel and out of pocket expenses associated with researching the direction of their Brexit action plan.
- National Prepare for Brexit Breakfast Roadshows are taking place, engaging with companies throughout the country on preparing for Brexit.
- The launch of an in-market Irish Advantage campaign promoting Irish companies to buyers in key markets and sectors.
Enterprise Ireland is aware that further efforts are needed to ensure that companies in the Border Region are resilient to economic shocks, such as Brexit. To this end, the agency will continue to work with companies from the region to drive their innovation, competitiveness, internationalisation and Brexit preparedness.
