Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 March 2019
172. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the funding her Department or agencies under the remit of her Department have provided to projects in County Galway in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019, respectively; if the funding has been allocated; if it has been drawn down in each case; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12503/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department and its agencies are working towards ambitious targets to ensure that employment and investment are distributed as evenly as possible across the country. Galway has experienced significant gains in both employment and investment in recent years with a comprehensive range of supports provided to companies in the County by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices.
In 2016 EI paid €4.4m to its client companies in Galway, with €4.7m and €5m paid in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In addition to these grants, under the first call of EI's Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), the BIA Innovator Campus CLG in Galway received €2.5m in funding. As part of the second call of the REDF, EI approved funding of €2.5m to Galway City Innovation District CLG and €2m to Midc Páirc Na Mara. EI has also approved €3m to the GMIT Galway incubator, Innovation Hub (IHub), at Mervue. Under the Accelerator Development Scheme which ran between 2015 and 2017, EI approved up to €3m in funding to four Regional Accelerators including the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) at PorterShed in Galway.
In 2016 EI awarded funding to Enterprise-Goal in Galway as part of its competitive LEO Fund and Community Enterprise Initiative Scheme, which distributed €5m to 48 projects across the country to support new business and job creation. This innovative project aims to develop a network to harness the GAA as a vehicle for enterprise development. In 2016, LEO Galway itself provided funding for 25 projects to the value of €393,686. In 2017 the LEO provided funding for 29 projects to the value of €433,596 and in 2018 it provided funding for 43 projects to the value of €671,061.
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has approved €143.5m in funding to 121 projects in Galway between 2016 and 2018, and to-date in 2019 . Within this figure, €30.4m has been paid to-date with an outstanding balance of €113.2m due to be paid from 2019 onwards.
In 2016, IDA Ireland paid a total of €13.6m to its client companies in Galway with €7.7m paid in 2017. Information on grants paid to IDA client companies in 2018 will be made available once they have been audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
