Minister for Small Business and Employment, Pat Breen has announced €4m extra funding for Local Enterprise Offices. 

Minister Breen announced an additional €4m in funding today for the Local Enterprise Offices to stimulate new start-ups and jobs across the country and to help micro businesses to cope with challenges in the year ahead.

Minister Breen said "The Local Enterprise Offices have shown the potential of small businesses to create jobs in every locality and the Government wants to boost that effort to spread recovery to all parts of the country.

"Companies are facing global economic challenges and the extra funding will be mainly used to work with clients to cope with those challenges, to investigate new markets and new opportunities and to boost the pipeline of new start-ups around Ireland.

"The microenterprises supported by the LEOs create between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs each year and thousands of client companies avail of training, mentoring, advice and guidance provided by the LEOs annually."

Minister Breen added that "The promotion of a ‘start-your-own-business’ culture is a key element of the Government’s job creation policy to reduce unemployment across the regions.

"The LEOs are leading that drive in every county and I am confident that the additional resources being made available to the LEOs will deliver results."

The Minister was speaking at the Annual LEO Forum attended by representatives of the LEOs, Local Authorities and Enterprise Ireland.

Amongst the themes discussed were strategic priorities for the LEOs in the year ahead, building on a strong performance to date; meeting the challenges and opportunities for microenterprises presented by Brexit; and the need for collaborative approaches to drive local enterprise development.