Brendan Smith urges dedicated fund for enterprise centres

Thank you, Oceannes, you will recall that we discussed recently in this House the need to accelerate the provision of enterprise centres and the development of workspace. Enterprise centres have been hugely important in the development of the rural economy and as Minister English would know in my own counties of Cavan and Monaghan there has been a good development of enterprise centres but we need further development and we need to develop a new policy particularly with a dedicated fund to establish such enterprise centres. Thank you, Oceannes. I want to thank Deputy Smith's first question. Enterprise centres provide space and training for entrepreneurs, allowing them to work remotely, access training and network with other business leaders, helping them to scale internationally and attract small-scale FDI. There are a wide range of funding mechanisms available for these centres. To date, my department has provided funding of £250 million administered by Enterprise Ireland to assist the establishment of some 270 enterprise centres throughout Ireland. In 2022, an additional £5 million will be provided to community enterprise centres through the Regional Enterprise Innovation and Scoping Scheme. This scheme builds on existing regional initiatives and aims to grant aid projects which will improve the resilience and international competitiveness of enterprise in all regions. Substantial funding will also be made up to 2027 for regional enterprise projects, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the Shared Island Fund. Since 2017, Enterprise Ireland has administered departmental funding to 91 projects, totalling over £16 million under both the Regional Enterprise Development Fund and the Community Enterprise Centre schemes. A further £9 million in grants was administered through Enterprise Ireland for 95 enterprise centres, many of which have been negatively affected by COVID-19, to sustain their businesses, pivot and further develop their services and continue to assist the development of our start-up companies and the provision of remote working spaces. A further £12 million in funding has been sanctioned to assist with the completion of projects under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund and Border Enterprise Development Fund for schemes that have been delayed or interrupted due to increased construction or construction-related costs. This fund is being administered through EI. Nationwide, there is a broad range of other hub-type facilities, both publicly and privately funded, including community enterprise centres and incubator and accelerators. These will be included by the National Hub Network Working Group in their mapping of a national network of remote working facilities. The Department of Rural and Community Development Fund, which leads this mapping initiative, has also invested significantly in remote working infrastructure through town and village renewal, Rural Development Fund and the LEADER programme, for example. Thank you for his reply. I agree with you there has been substantial funding provided for 20 years plus in relation to development enterprise centres but you take the case of my own county we've had good track record of the local authority developing workspace developing enterprise centres and developing the sites providing the services. Now they can draw down financial assistance and grant aid towards development but the local contribution is a very hefty demand on a local authority that has a low rate space so there's need for a better funding model to ensure that the local authorities can continue to put in place such infrastructure and we thankfully there are some international companies that started in my own county in in literally the backyards of houses and in small enterprises that are international companies today and there is a demand for workspace there we know we all know that for a new startup business a one or two person operation the provision of workspace is a huge demand cost wise and the provision of workspace can ensure that we continue to generate and create employment in our more in our smaller towns and more rural areas thank you okay early thanks um thanks very much deputy and i i accept the point that you're making um that for some local authorities particularly those with low rate space it can be difficult to find uh the co-funding that that's available i think that's perhaps something we can examine uh under the regional enterprise development funds because we'll have over 100 million over the next couple of years uh from that for uh regional enterprise development um also um about 100 million has been invested in uh remote working hubs through the department of rural and community development um just 9 million awarded last year through connected hubs um and uh i think it's you know i think they're very good investments um i visit a lot of them when i get around the country uh and uh you know i'm keen to see them full and busy they're not all full by the way and and i would like to see them all full and busy so we can invest in some more in particular space for manufacturing businesses we have a good network of hub thankfully developed to honest you we need to to to think and develop policy on an all-iron basis last week i arranged for the good director's committee and the implementation of the good friday agreement to meet cavern and monaghan county councils with a presentation in relation to development of workspace enterprise center working with their neighboring local authorities north of the border thankfully the development of the all ireland economy has been phenomenal since the sign of the good friday agreement in 1998 so we can drive forward the all ireland economy development if we have more collaboration between our statutory agencies north and south and an area like cavern mon and this in the central border area should there be economic turbulence we are vulnerable because we're the least developed part of the border region and we need that extra incentive the people will get up and do do the work and local entrepreneurs will create jobs but they need that particular assistance to ensure that the necessary infrastructure and workspace is in place thank you okay early thanks deputy i i think when it comes to property solutions one of the things that's worked really well uh is the idea it's regional property program uh so um building advanced factories building advanced office blocks which we can then take investors to see and get investment and jobs in much more quickly and it's a whole program of them across the country and be familiar in your own county um in cavern and also in monon as well there's there's an advanced building solution being developed um i think for irish indigenous companies um we can we can do more in that space as well and again i think uh perhaps funding under the regional enterprise plans uh is the best way to go there