Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 June 2023
452. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the cost of increasing funding for the Digital Start Initiative to deliver funding to the value of five days of consultancy for firms instead of four days. [27583/23]
View answerDigital Start is designed to help businesses prepare and implement a plan for the adoption of digital tools and techniques across the business. Digital Start will provide strategic intervention for businesses to work with third party consultants to:
• assist them in identifying where they are on their digital business journey,
• develop a digital adaptation plan based on their identified need,
• implement their digital adaptation plan.
Digital Start may be used to obtain digital strategy, technical and/or advisory services from approved providers. Maximum value of the Digital Start support per applicant business is €4,500 inclusive of VAT. This amount equates approximately to 4 days of consultancy. There is no applicant contribution. Digital Start is open to businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors, including those with up to 50 employees. There were 137 Digital Start projects approved in 2022.
Increasing the level of funding to a maximum of five days instead of four would increase the individual project cost by just over €1,100 to approximately €5,600. €0.983m was allocated to the Digital Start Pilot in 2023, and increasing the number of days would require an increase in the budget to €1.23m.
