Extended mandate for Offaly Local Enterprise Office

Offaly Local Enterprise Offices will now be able to provide grants to help firms with greater than 10 employees with the potential to export.

The move comes following a decision to extend the mandate of the network of Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) on a pilot basis. Previously, LEOs dealt with small businesses with less than ten employees.

The change will mean that thousands more 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 pilot framework to extend the LEO s mandate will expand their role so they can go further in helping local job creation and allow them to provide direct grants to businesses with more than 10 employees. It is also planned to put in place structures to enable a seamless transition from LEO to Enterprise Ireland, so that ambitious and high-performing companies, regardless of size, are assisted in scaling and achieving their potential; and

The decision fulfils a Programme for Government commitment to ensure a continuation of support for enterprises that have grown above ten staff. 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 10 or more employees, as appropriate to their stage of development and internationalisation ambition.

The Tánaiste said: “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 – key priorities for the Government and for business.”

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.

“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.”