County Enterprise Boards

There are 35 city or county enterprise boards. The boards were established in October 1993 as companies limited by guarantee. Section 10 of the Industrial Development Act, 1995 gave them formal statutory recognition and requires that their accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Boards derive 25 per cent of their funding from the Exchequer and 75 per cent from the EU Structural Funds, (BMW Regional Operational Programme, 2000-2006).

The role of the boards is to promote micro enterprises (10 employees or less) at local level and thereby create good and enduring employment. To this end, the boards are engaged in: the development of enterprise plans for their respective counties or administrative areas; the promotion of an enterprise culture in their areas; the provision of business information / advice, counselling and mentoring support; the offer of financial assistance by way of capital or employment grants, and more recently equity and refundable aid, to individuals, small enterprises and local community groups to assist commercially viable projects; and the development of management skills in micro enterprises.

There are normally 14 board members, with an independent chairperson; usually the county manager or a private sector / community person. There are four persons selected by members of the county council; the remaining members are nominees of the state agencies (FAS, Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta or Shannon Development ), the social partners and a maximum of 4 others who may include a promoter of a small business or a representative of local communities / local development organisation. The boards complement the work of other existing state agencies and do not displace or duplicate other local enterprise initiatives. Their role is to facilitate local development and to act as a catalyst where no enterprise is active at community level. The boards provide a framework for local initiative and complement the regional and county level services of state agencies such as FAS, Teagasc, Enterprise Ireland, Udaras na Gaeltachta, Shannon Development Failte Ireland, and the regional tourism organisations. Overall co-ordination and supervision of the city and county enterprise boards is exercised by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Financial assistance is provided by way of capital grant up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the cost of capital and other investment or €63,500, whichever is the lesser; or an employment grant of up to €63,500 may be provided in respect of each new full-time job created in an eligible enterprise; or a feasibility study grant where a maximum of 75 per cent of the cost of preparing a feasibility study and business plan may be provided, subject to an overall limit of €6,350.

In addition to providing grants CEBs have been involved in other activities such as cooperating with other organisations to generate additional funds, providing support to both community and private enterprise centres / incubator units and investment in new enterprise space. CEBs are also involved in the local provision of management training in small enterprises. They fund the training but do not function as direct training providers themselves. Training programmes are delivered by qualified trainers from a number of outside agencies/third level institutions.

In the five-year period 1994-1999, the boards assisted the creation of over 14,000 full-time and almost 3,000 part-time jobs at a total cost of €75 million. The target for the entire six-year period of the operational programme was 8,000 full-time jobs. The approximate cost per job is less than €5,100. To date, the national failure rate has averaged about 4 per cent.

During the National Development Plan 2000-2006, period, there will be a gradual shift from direct finance to indirect supports, and already the Enterprise Boards in the BMW region are obliged to have 25% of their funding made available in the form of refundable aid.

County Enterprise Boards

Laois CEB

Longford CEB

Offaly CEB

Westmeath CEB