Government launches €12 million grant innovative for enterprise centres

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Applications are now open for the Enterprise Centre Fund, which enables Irish enterprise centres to avail of grants of up to €150,000 to develop a recovery plan for their businesses to deal with the impact of Covid-19.

The Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, launched the fund at an event at a Enterprise Centre in Dublin’s Liberties. The smallest grant available is €10,000, with the funds earmarked for recovery plans designed to help centres “reboot” over the next six to twelve months.

The fund will be administered by Enterprise Ireland and targets the enterprise centres in every region of the country, which provide space, training, advice and administer grants to hundreds of companies and entrepreneurs in Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said the centres “provide space, training, finance and advice to entrepreneurs and their services will be especially important over the coming months. This funding will help them put in place a recovery plan which will ensure they can continue to deliver for all parts of Ireland”.

Varadkar continued: “We are determined to do everything we can to assist businesses during this difficult times. Enterprise centres support over 2,000 companies and thousands of jobs in every region of the country.”

The fund will cover 80 per cent of costs detailed in a recovery plan submitted by applicants, who will have to demonstrate the ability to finance the balance of funding, which can take the form of revenue generated through the centres activities over the duration of the plan.

In order to be considered eligible, the centres – which can be for profit or not – must be headquartered in Ireland and provide rented accommodation space to enterprise and other supports and services through programmes offered.

For further information and application on the grant please visit Enterprise Ireland