29 January 2013: Limerick Chamber has today said that Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) must be harnessed to their full potential by including input from the local business community.
Maria Kelly, Limerick Chamber Chief Executive said “While we welcome the introduction of Local Enterprise Offices, it is vital that the structure established to support business startups and enterprise includes representation from the local business community. LEOs have the potential to be of real benefit to SMEs and startups, but they need to engage stakeholders from the business community, such as Limerick Chamber, who understand the realities and challenges of doing business in Ireland today.”
Limerick Chamber recently made a submission on the subject of LEOs to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, making the following recommendations:
- The roles and functions of LEOs must be clearly defined with no ‘Mission creep’ into areas already provided for by the private sector. There must be no duplication of services. The Terms of Reference for LEOs must be clearly established.
- Members of local business communities should be represented on LEOs at a governance level.
- LEOs must become an information portal providing guidance and direction to clients, improving awareness of supports available and reducing confusion.
- The services provided by LEOs must be judged using clearly stated indicators. Performance metrics, exclusively focussed on ‘hard’ quantitative and qualitative measurements, must be used to confirm the amount of support activities undertaken for core customers, i.e. business start-ups employing one to nine staff.
- Chambers recognise that Local Authority revenue sources must be broadened to ease the burden on the business community. This must be achieved without compromising the quality of services provided.
- All efforts must be taken to contain costs and produce savings at Local Government level. These savings should be passed on to the business community.
A full copy of Limerick Chamber submission is available here. The Chambers Ireland submission is available here.
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For further information contact Edwina Gore at Limerick Chamber on 061-217607 or egore@limerickchamber.ie
Notes to Editor:
About Local Enterprise Offices: Local Enterprise Offices were introduced by the Government to replace County and City Enterprise Boards and are designed to combine enterprise support at a local level and business support services from Local Authorities into a single Local Enterprise Office located within the Local Authority. For more information on LEOs, please follow this link.
About Limerick Chamber: Limerick Chamber is the leading business representative organisation in the region providing a range of services and supports with the aim of creating the best environment for business to succeed. The Chamber also supports businesses from inception to expansion through
- The National Franchise Centre: a city-centre based, specially designed training and incubation facility offering specialised training courses for start-up companies and entrepreneurs that the Chamber delivers in partnership with LIT
- The Limerick Chamber Skillnet: a government funded programme that offers tailored enterprise-led discounted training to companies
- Chamber networks: various networks provide a platform through which businesses can interact with one another, exchange information, grow strategically and generate commercial activity.
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