COSME-EEN-SGA-Ireland

ended

Ireland-SME-2021 implements a single Enterprise Europe Network providing integrated services in support of business and innovation in the Republic of Ireland, a NUTS1 Region with a current population estimated to be 4,800,464 in June 2018. The economy is expected to continue to grow by 4.7% in 2018 but forecasters are cautious as a result of potential rising interest rates, rising commodity prices and the negative impact of Brexit. The Irish economy is strongly linked to that of the UK and will be the most impacted negatively by unfavourable changes in the Custom’s Union. In Ireland according to the Central Statistics Office, SMEs account for 99.7% of active enterprises, 68.0% of persons engaged, 50.3% of turnover and 46.2% of gross value added (GVA). It is noticeable that while SMEs employ almost seven in every ten persons in the business economy, they account for less than half of GVA. The Network targets SMEs as well as High Potential Start-ups, Entrepreneurs, Universities, Institutes of Technology, Industry Clusters and other Beneficiaries. It aims to stimulate the competitiveness of significantly more Irish SMEs through improved technological and non-technological innovation performance and productivity improvements to produce goods and services more efficiently that will be saleable on world markets. This is aimed at increasing overall sales and exports from Ireland to existing and new markets. This is particularly important at the time of Brexit given the dependency of the SMEs in Ireland on the UK economy and the need to diversify exports and seek new markets. By doing this it will contribute to overall growth in the EU, the scaling of certain companies, the development of innovative technologies and the transfer of knowledge.