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The funding will help companies in the ‘phase of recovery and adaptation’ while also enabling the creation of digital roadmaps for businesses.
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar, TD, launched an additional €51m in funding today (5 August) to help companies recover from the impact of Covid-19 and to accelerate the digitalisation of enterprises.
It will provide liquidity through grants, capital investment, equity and loan notes to manufacturing and internationally traded services companies that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. This money will be used to enable productivity improvements and further capacity building.
Within this €51m funding package, €20m is being provided for the existing Sustaining Enterprise Fund, which was launched last year to support to Irish companies impacted by the pandemic.
As much as €31m is also being provided for the new Accelerated Recovery Fund, which will provide liquidity for companies to support significant investments in capital and digital capability to boost productivity.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have focused on how best to sustain businesses impacted by Covid-19 restrictions. One of our early measures was the €180m Sustaining Enterprise Fund,” said Varadkar
“The vast majority of businesses, particularly those in the manufacturing and export sectors, have proved remarkably resilient when faced with an unprecedented public health crisis with a major impact on domestic and global trade. Now, as we cautiously emerge from these necessary public health restrictions and global markets begin to open up again, the Government will continue to help businesses in their next phase of recovery and adaptation.”
The funding will be available through Enterprise Ireland.
Up to €800,000 is available to companies eligible for the Sustaining Enterprise Fund, while the maximum support that can be approved under the Accelerated Recovery Fund is €1.8m per project.
The funding also includes €9,000 digitalisation vouchers, which will allow for eligible companies to develop a digital roadmap for their business. This can take the form of technical or advisory services for their current and future plans alongside identifying opportunities for digitalisation.
Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy said: “The new €51m fund is intended to ensure that Irish businesses continue to be supported in recovery from the impact of Covid-19. To date, Enterprise Ireland has approved more than €181m in Covid-19 financial supports under the Sustaining Enterprise Fund, protecting more than 27,500 jobs.
“As economies reopen, ongoing investment in business-critical areas is vital to the long-term growth of companies.”
