merrion street

Finance Minister Michael Noonan today launched the Supporting SMEs Online Tool at the opening of the Limerick Local Enterprise Office. This online tool is a cross-governmental initiative to help Irish start-ups and small businesses navigate the range of Government business supports that they could be eligible for.

There are currently over 80 Government business supports – totalling over €2bn available – to SMEs. A specially commissioned survey of nearly 2,000 SMEs has shown a lack of awareness of these supports amongst Irish businesses, with 98% of respondents admitting they had a low awareness of public supports available to them.

This tool aims to address this problem. By answering 8 questions, a small business will, in one location:

• Find out which Government business supports are available to them
• Get information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit
• Be told their nearest Local Enterprise Office to discuss the outcomes of the guide further
• Be able to download all these filtered results into a document for their further use