Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 May 2024
153. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 355 of 25 April 2024, the total expenditure in the form of grants or relief given to social enterprises for research and innovation in each of the years 2020 to 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20102/24]
View answerThere are two avenues through which social enterprises can access research and innovation supports. Social enterprises can access the innovation vouchers offered by Enterprise Ireland once they are an SMEs that is a limited company registered in Ireland, with fewer than 250 employees and not exceeding an annual turnover of €50m.
In terms of the remaining research and innovation supports offered by Enterprise Ireland, they may be able to access them once they become an Enterprise Ireland client provided they can create over ten jobs and can trade internationally in an eligible sector, under the Industrial Development Act.
While Enterprise Ireland will accept a company that describes itself as a social enterprise as a client or give them access to innovation vouchers, they do not classify them by this description, as social enterprise is a business model rather than a sector. Enterprise Ireland identify clients by sector, size and location. The sector information is needed by Enterprise Ireland to know if the clients are undertaking eligible activity under the Industrial Development Act definition of sectors that it can support.
Given this, Enterprise Ireland have advised that the information requested cannot be extracted from their database.
