Senator Aisling Dolan - Strong Voice, New Vision.
A new scheme announced by Government will improve and grow our social enterprises in Roscommon, a Fine Gael Senator has said.
Senator Aisling Dolan welcomed news from Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, TD, to support social enterprises across Ireland with a Scaling-up Scheme designed to improve impact and sustainability.
Senator Aisling Dolan said: “Social enterprises in Roscommon play a key role in communities and we have seen this throughout the recent Pandemic. This innovative €1.5 million scheme is a great opportunity for enterprises in Roscommon to have a real impact.
The scheme comprises of two streams, one for medium-scale capital works up to €100,000 and this could be to buy equipment, tech supports or building works
The second stream for feasibility studies up to €10,000 to help groups find out their impact by scaling up their services or goods for people in the community. These funds are being administered on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development by Pobal. Information webinars will be held on 18th August & 1st September.
The drive is to encourage social enterprises which help revitalise towns and villages by addressing economic, social and educational disadvantage. This supports Fine Gael’s ambition and campaign to build stronger, safer communities in Roscommon.
Applications open at 10am on 2nd August 2022 and close at 3pm on 15th September 2022. Further application details can be found at https://www.pobal.ie/programmes/daf-scaling-fund-for-social-enterprises/ .
This funding promotes innovation within the Irish enterprise ecosystem and will encourage a greater contribution to local economies and entrepreneurial activity, productivity and innovative capability”, Senator Aisling Dolan concluded.
Minister Humphreys added, “This Scaling-up Scheme for Social Enterprise will provide some much-needed capital support to social enterprises nationwide that will enable them to grow their operations and strengthen their impact on the communities they serve.
“This scheme will be delivered in two separate streams. The first will provide funding for medium-scale capital grants to improve the impact, quality, productivity, and sustainability of social enterprise operations through the acquisition of equipment, technology, or site and building works.
“The second will provide grants for feasibility studies for social enterprises to research their potential to expand, or scale their goods/services offering, with a view to further increase the direct impact of their social enterprise on disadvantaged populations.
“It is envisaged that up to 30 social enterprises will benefit from this funding, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact on themselves, the communities they operate in, and on their customers and service users”, concluded Deputy Humphreys.
