By Business & Finance 
Details have been announced of a further allocation of €1.85m in capital funding to 15 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) to assist micro enterprises in creating local jobs.
The €1.85m is being made available to those LEOs that have identified a pipeline of demand for financial assistance for projects that can be initiated this year.
The funding will be available for use by the LEOs to provide direct capital grant assistance to micro enterprises within their county.
These supports are aimed at assisting entrepreneurs to start-up or expand their business. It is expected that the funding will assist micro enterprises to create or sustain over 300 jobs across the country.
The LEOs support some 6,500 client micro enterprises across the country and last year created over 7,100 new full and part-time jobs.
Making the announcement, Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor said: “This reallocation of €1.85m in local enterprise development capital funding will help the LEOs to support micro enterprises to create or sustain over 300 jobs in LEOs across the country.”
She continued: “I would encourage all micro and small business owners to engage with the LEO for their area, even if they don’t currently need financial support; I think they would be surprised at the quality and usefulness of the supports that would be made available to them.”
Minister of State for Employment and Small Business Pat Breen added: “I am pleased that micro enterprises across the country are being further supported today to assist them in creating or sustaining local jobs that are the backbone of our economy. The Local Enterprise Offices are a key service in supporting these entrepreneurs or existing businesses and they provide an excellent first-stop-shop service for micro and small businesses in every county in Ireland.”
