Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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65. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will amend eligibility criteria to enable social enterprises to access local enterprise office and Enterprise Ireland supports. [43582/24]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I want to talk to the Minister about social enterprises, in particular if he will amend the eligibility criteria to enable them to access the local enterprise office and Enterprise Ireland supports. They are locked out of some of them. The Minister knows the real value of social enterprises. There are hundreds of them right across my own county of Mayo. They generate real and sustainable regional employment, while also strengthening the social cohesion in communities. The effectiveness of social enterprise in fostering both job growth and social cohesion is proportionate to the extent to which an enabling environment for social enterprise is created.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy said, social enterprises are an important and growing part of Ireland's entrepreneurship ecosystem. They create jobs and stimulate local economic activity and they are recognised as an integral part of Ireland's broad enterprise policy landscape.

My colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, launched Trading for Impact 2024-2027 - Ireland's National Social Enterprise Policy, last July, to build on the achievements of Ireland's first social enterprise policy. This policy was developed following widespread consultation with stakeholders, including officials in my Department.

Social enterprises are eligible for local enterprise office, LEO, assistance, provided they operate on a commercial basis and meet the eligibility criteria any other company needs to meet for the scheme. As the Deputy is aware, the LEOs offer a range of lean, green and digital supports that are designed to help businesses save time, money and energy and to remain competitive into the future. Many social enterprises may be eligible for supports such as the free digital for business consultancy, the grow digital voucher, the free green for business consultancy, the energy efficiency grant, and the LEO suite of training and mentoring programmes.

There has been positive engagement between officials in my Department, the Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, SERI, and officials in the Department of Rural and Community Development who have responsibility for social enterprise policy. This engagement led to the arrangement of a webinar last month for training purposes for LEO staff on the topic of social enterprises.

The Deputy will probably also be aware of the new National Enterprise Hub, which provides a centralised signposting support service to the 230 Government or agency supports in areas such as decarbonisation, digitalisation and skills development.

The Deputy also asked about Enterprise Ireland. There is a collaborative relationship between it and SERI. Provided that social entrepreneurs meet the usual EI conditions, that is, that they are manufacturing or internationally trading and can create more than ten full-time jobs, they are eligible for Enterprise Ireland support. There are ways for them to access support from both Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs. I hope that is helpful.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for her response. There needs to be flexibility. Many social enterprises are commercial and others are not, but they add something to communities. There must be a recognition beyond their economic value of their social value as well. They deserve equal treatment, including the same level of support and incentives as businesses and non-profits, recognising their dual contribution to the economy and also social cohesion.

I commend the Westport-based company, Education DESTY, with which the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, will be familiar, on its recent win of the award for social enterprise of the year 2024. Education DESTY has meticulously developed a range of resources aimed at supporting educators, parents and children alike. Its programmes are specifically designed to meet the diverse needs of young learners, particularly those grappling with emotional and social challenges. The programmes were created by an educational psychologist, Stephanie O'Malley. I commend Education DESTY on its achievement.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy very much. I add my congratulations to the winners. I met with SERI in July. I received a briefing from it on the survey it commissioned, in which 66 of the social enterprises across Ireland participated. SERI made it very clear that it has had very positive engagement with the Department, Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise office staff. This led to the roll-out of the workshop just last week. The workshop is aimed at educating LEO staff about the profile of social enterprises. Deputy Conway-Walsh alluded to their profile and how important it is to make sure we educate the staff who are making the decisions on the award of grants. I appreciate that there must be consistency across the 31 local enterprise offices in that regard. The reason the workshop is so important is because it is about educating staff in all local enterprise offices on the value of social enterprises. The training will improve the consistency across the decision-making channels.

To be clear, and to put on the record of the Dáil, once a social enterprise has a commercial operation, it is entitled to access the same support as any other company, both from the perspective of LEOs and Enterprise Ireland, but it must meet the same terms and conditions as any other applicant.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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There needs to be an awareness of what is available and what supports can be accessed by social enterprises. The supports are often beyond the reach of social enterprises. They are so busy with what they are trying to do within their communities that we must make it as easy as possible.

I, too, recently met with Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, SERI, the representative body for social enterprises in the State. We talked about some of the excellent social enterprises, such as the NOW group in Belfast and the Together Academy in Dún Laoghaire. I want to see more collaboration across the island. There is a fantastic social enterprise in Belfast City Hall for young autistic people and I would like to see that replicated in Mayo. There is huge potential across the board if we support such initiatives in the right way and are flexible and agile enough to respond to their needs, encourage and enable the good work that is being done, encourage more of it, and encourage the collaboration and exchange of learning between the enterprise models. That is what I would like to see, as well as SERI being resourced to be able to be the representative body in the best way it can.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State, in her contribution, referred to social enterprises as being part of the broader enterprise community. I believe they are but often the perception is that they are somehow outside of this. I echo what my colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh said regarding an awareness campaign. That would be incredibly important. We also need to look at how supports can be given to the non-commercial social enterprises, specifically in the area of decarbonisation. This is an area we have discussed at the enterprise, trade and employment committee and here on the floor of the Dáil. One of the great things about social enterprises is that they are local and can make a huge contribution towards the decarbonisation of the broader enterprise sector. It is great that everyone here is so positive towards SERI because we all know the good work it does. There is a little more to be done to signpost where the supports are to then bring them into the broader enterprise community.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I add my voice to Deputy O'Reilly's point. In my experience, there are many trip points for social enterprises in getting access, such as the definition of whether an enterprise is commercial. If an organisation has a charitable status, it can be excluded from Office of Public Procurement contracts because of this status. Much like Deputy O'Reilly, I believe there will be a lot of opportunity in the circular economy for semi-commercial activities. They will not be fully commercial in the early term but we need them. They are also in renewable energy and we should promote group schemes within communities. We need to clear the pathways in order that these opportunities can be exploited. There are currently too many trips along the way.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank everybody for their contributions and for all the support they give to social enterprises, both within their communities and throughout the country. I acknowledge the huge role SERI plays in doing exactly that and driving this important element of our community.

The suggestion of awareness campaigns is really positive and is something we can look at. That said, I point to what already exists in terms of the national enterprise hub which is our new online portal that is backed up by a fully staffed call centre. It is there at the end of a phone line or website search to provide that exact information to all companies as well as social enterprises on what they may be eligible for.

Regarding charitable status and commercially non-viable or commercially non-traded organisations, when I got the report from SERI, there were five respondents to its survey who were refused access because their businesses were not considered commercially viable. Obviously, that is five social enterprises we would like to be in a position to support, but it is a small number. We will definitely look at this in respect of the recommendations SERI has provided on improving communication and outreach, which the Deputies have mentioned, and reviewing that support eligibility. It is important, however, to ensure State money is invested in the right way, which is companies that are viable. We have to strike that balance.