Minister believes extension of LEO's to target new exporters will create jobs in the Midlands

Minister Pippa Hackett has said that the new extension of the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) mandate will maximise the growth of small and medium size businesses and create jobs in the Midlands.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar recently annnounced that the government has decided to extend the mandate of the Local Enterprise Offices to target new exporters by providing direct grants to firms who employ over ten people and are operating in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors.

Speaking following the news, Minister Hackett said: “This is good news for businesses in the Midlands. The Local Enterprise Offices of Laois and Offaly have offered a comprehensive service for businesses for many years. Today’s announcement, by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, builds on their success. In collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, LEOs are now able to provide grants to help firms with greater than 10 employees with the potential to export.

“This is a welcome extension to their remit and is the first step along a path of further extensions of services in coming years. I hope that small and medium sized businesses will consider these new supports.”

Thousands more Irish companies will now be eligible for government export grants in a move that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said will fill a crucial gap and help strengthen Ireland’s indigenous SMEs.

The Tánaiste added:

"This extension of the LEO mandate will fill a gap in state supports for those businesses with greater than ten employees. Working closely with Enterprise Ireland, it will allow the LEOs to provide grants to help firms to have the ambition to export. Our broader vision is to further expand the advisory role of the LEOs in a way that gives them a consistently broader reach into the business community across all regions and this will be reflected in our White Paper on Enterprise Policy.

"Since 2014 the network of 31 Local Enterprise Offices has grown and they are now well established as the first stop shop for all businesses and entrepreneurs. They have evolved in the provision of services including direct grant aid to microenterprises that wanted to grow internationally and training and advisory programmes to a broader cohort of companies including those trading locally. The assistance they provide will be critical to helping firms to be more productive, to digitise and to reduce their carbon footprint.”

Commenting on the announcement, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, said:

“I am extremely encouraged by the appetite of the talented business development teams in our Local Enterprise Office network to grow their engagement and support for the SME community throughout Ireland. Over the last number of years, the government has responded quickly and effectively to the challenges faced by small firms, whether it is COVID-19, access to credit, Brexit or the energy crisis. However, we need to build the foundations for a stronger advisory service for all businesses, including domestically focused firms, and the LEOs will have a key role to play in this regard. As a government, we are committed to developing the capacity of the network to work with more small businesses in this area so that we can drive the broad-based and regional growth that Ireland needs."

In future years, it is intended to further expand the range of advisory services available to all companies with up to 50 employees, including those operating in the locally traded sector.

It builds on the new Enterprise Ireland strategy which sets out a commitment to ensure a continuation of assistance for enterprises that have grown to ten or more employees, as appropriate to their stage of development and internationalisation ambition.

The strategy also commits Enterprise Ireland to working with the LEOs, to ensure that companies of all sizes are assisted on their development journey, maximising their growth and job creation potential.