Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2018
75. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the supports available to SMEs in counties Sligo and Leitrim to help them prepare for Brexit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5760/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe North East/North West Action Plan for Jobs is a key policy response for supporting enterprise development in the Border region including counties Sligo and Leitrim. The Plan is stimulating job creation across the region by facilitating collaborative initiatives between the public and private sector, and through the provision of new competitive funds, via Enterprise Ireland (EI) to support regional enterprise projects. Sectors targeted include traditionally strong sectors for the region like agrifood, manufacturing/engineering and tourism.
In May 2017 EI launched the €60m Regional Enterprise Development Fund designed to support the ambition, goals, and implementation of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs. The first call under this Fund concluded last August, with results announced on 11 December and 21 projects were successful, totalling €30.5m in aggregate grant support. The second call is expected to issue in Q1 2018.
EI together with the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) play a critical role in driving and nurturing entrepreneurship all the way from an originating idea at local level, to taking-on global markets. An extra €4 million in funding for all the LEOs, including Sligo and Leitrim, in 2017 was allocated to fund a range of initiatives including Brexit supports across the country. 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 by building the capability of their employees to identify problems and improve operations. In addition, the six LEOs in the Border region are working together with their Northern Ireland counterparts under the EU Co-Innovate Programme.
Economic shocks, such as Brexit, places companies in Sligo and Leitrim, 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 EI to ensure that client companies are resilient include:
- EI is actively working with companies with global ambition to internationalise, and in doing so, diversify their global footprint. To support this, on 1 February, EI launched a new Market Discovery Fund to incentivise companies to research viable and sustainable market entry strategies in new geographic markets.
- EI is working with its clients in the Border Region to drive innovation activity via a number of supports that enable companies to diagnose their innovation readiness, provides financial support for in-house R&D projects and fosters collaboration.
- EI is working with companies to identify and measure competitiveness issues and support companies by providing access to a range of competitiveness building tools, including the Company Competitiveness Health Check, the Lean Offer and Green Offer.
In addition, EI provides supports to assist companies, such as those located in Sligo and Leitrim, to be aware and to prepare for Brexit, for example:
- Launched a ‘Brexit SME Scorecard’, a new interactive online platform which can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six business pillars. Over 2,000 companies have utilised this Scorecard.
- Launched a Be Prepared Grant that 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.
- Ran a national Prepare for Brexit Breakfast Roadshows and is currently engaging with companies throughout the country on preparing for Brexit.
- Launched the in-market Irish Advantage campaign promoting Irish companies to buyers in key markets and sectors.
I am very conscious that further efforts are needed to ensure that companies in Sligo and Leitrim are resilient to economic shocks, such as Brexit. To this end, I am committed to ensure that the agency will continue to work with companies from the region to drive their innovation, competitiveness, internationalisation and Brexit preparedness.
