This article is from page 10 of the 2014-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
SHANNON businesses are ideally placed to avail of a new € 500,000 fund that has been established by the Government for businesses involved in the aviation and manufacturing sectors.
That’s the message this week from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, after he launched the Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund that is open for applications from now until the end of the month.
This fund provides for up to € 500,000 in equity support for each successful applicant, with Minister Bruton revealing that fund for aviation-related business being inspired by a task force report on Shannon.
“The aviation focus follows on from the Government’s publication of the ‘Shannon Aviation Business Development Task Force Final Report’ and the need to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the aviation sector,” said Minister Bruton.
“The focus on the manufacturing sector is a direct response to one of the recommendations of our manufacturing plan. The announcement will make a real contribution to supporting more businesses and ultimately more jobs in these important areas,” he added. The priority of the funding is to provide young companies in these sectors with the critical early stage funding for the key commercial and technical milestones that will ensure delivery of their product or service, and help them get their project to a key funding milestone.
The fund is open to applications from the aviation sector including financial services associated with the sector, aircraft and engine leasing, aviation software and IT, training, travel related software and related services, small aircraft assembly, aircraft dismantle, maintenance repair operations airframe and components, composite repair, rarts manufacture, aviation services, and other engineering and technical activities,” the minister added.