BUSINESS SUPPORTS:MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan will provide a total of €100 million in a new "enterprise stabilisation fund" to support exporters struggling under the weight of the recession.

In the face of the loss of 80,000 jobs since the start of the year, the fund is designed to protect employment in vulnerable but viable small and medium-sized businesses. The scheme will be operated by Enterprise Ireland.

Mr Lenihan said €50 million would be provided this year, with a further €50 million to be made available in 2010. “In conjunction with the banking sector, this fund will provide direct financial support to eligible internationally trading enterprises,” he said.

The Department of Finance said firms availing of the fund must not have been in difficulty at the start of last July but “may now” be facing difficulties as a result of the global economic crisis.

The firm in question must be judged by Enterprise Ireland to have a “sound, robust and sustainable” business that would be financially viable in the medium term and capable of significant growth in a global upturn, it added.

The allocation to the fund is in addition to the existing €73.5 million exchequer allocation for IDA Ireland to support foreign direct investment and the existing €20.2 million in supports for micro-enterprises through the county and city enterprise board network. It is also in addition to the existing €295 million allocation for support to research and development projects.

“The clear message that this prioritisation sends out to the world is that Ireland is open for business, open for investment and open for job creation by both indigenous enterprise and through foreign direct investment,” said Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan.

In an effort to support workers who lose their jobs, Mr Lenihan said the Government would provide additional funding for the “back-to-work” and “back-to-education” schemes and facilitate work experience programmes.

The total full-year cost of such measures will be about €128 million, funded from reallocations of funds within three departments: Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Education and Science; and Social and Family Affairs.

At a full-year cost of €22.1 million from the budget of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the new funding will facilitate 1,400 additional claims for support under the back-to-work enterprise allowance and the back-to-education allowance. A total of 16,525 places will be made available under community employment and training schemes run by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

A further 6,910 places will be made available under schemes backed by the Department of Education. These include transition courses, accelerated certificate programmes, full- and part-time third-level places, post-Leaving Cert courses and the redundant apprentice scheme.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment allocation is €55.9 million, along with a further €5.5 million for joint initiatives with Department of Education. The latter’s allocation this year is €18.85 million and €44.35 million in a full year.