Small and Medium Enterprises
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I would be willing to work with the Deputy across government to enhance the supports the LEOs have been offering to SMEs, the small family businesses that make up two thirds of all the employment across our country and drive so much of the economic activity in our communities. We are absolutely looking to enhance supports for them. The Minister of State, Deputy Alan Dillon, and I are doing a lot of work in relation to the LEOs, Enterprise Ireland and the service level agreement that pertains to both.
With regard to the midlands, I would point out that from quarter 3 of 2024 to quarter 3 of 2025, 3,900 new jobs were created in that locality. Critically, that means there are 3,900 families with an additional income that was not the case a year earlier.
On the broader spectrum, budget 2026 was an exclusively enterprise budget. That will fuel the engine for the years ahead to ensure we can do so many things for employees and tackle our infrastructural deficits in the coming years. That will be critical to the success of our economy.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19