The community enterprise sector added €1.8bn in value to the Irish economy in 2023 while employing approximately 18,600 people. It incorporates everything from food to technology.

“It’s very significant and is something that is not getting enough recognition from the government,” says Ms Finn. “We have community enterprise centres that are doing incredible work but are not being recognised for it. There are incredible success stories coming out of local communities. In a community enterprise centre in Portarlington for example, there’s a company that specialises in drone deliveries.”

 The CEAI emerged from voluntary, peer-led community enterprise centre regional support networks in the early 1990s. In 2008, it amalgamated as the National Association of Community Enterprise centres. In 2021, it was rebranded. It became a not-for-profit limited company by guarantee in 2019.

Today, the CEAI provides representation, support, training and mentoring, learning and independent advice on an individual basis as well to boards, management and key personnel across the community enterprise sector.

The CEAI is recognised as a key stakeholder across the National Hub Network and is a regular contributor to government policy discussions. It’s the voice of authority for the community enterprise sector and the wider enterprise hub network across Ireland.

Enterprise centres and innovation hubs play vital roles in their local communities and in the delivery of strategies designed to drive local, regional and national economic development. At local level, they contribute to economic stability and social cohesion while on a national basis, they offer an enabling environment for the growth and success of both the HPSU (High Potential Start-Ups) and SME sectors.

Ms Finn, who has thirty years of experience in the not-for-profit sector, is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. This involves supporting projects relevant to the sector and supporting the enterprise centres and hubs, including managers and staff around the country.

“Very specifically, we’re building on the sustainability of the organisation. We do that by attracting various different funding streams and working with European projects which also act as a revenue stream.” 

 There’s a very active Community Enterprise Centre in Mitchelstown, which opened in 2012. “It’s full to capacity. There are lots of different types of businesses in there including a satellite office for jobs.ie. Another really great example of a start-up is HATS (HR and Talent Services), a recruitment company. Kelly McGrath scaled up the business and now has staff working with her.”

 There are about 150 Community Enterprise Centres around the country, from sole traders to “very large companies such as Complex Nutrition, based in the enterprise centre in Navan. They employ over 350 people producing milk products and nutritional food for customers around the world. Then you have high-tech start-ups such as Planet 21 whose focus is cyber security and IT services. They were acquired by a Danish company earlier in 2024.” 

 Ms Finn estimates that the CEAI accommodates over 3,500 businesses employing 18,000 individuals around the country. 

“The impact of these companies is vast in terms of local communities. If you look at the enterprise centre in Mitchelstown, the people working from there are living locally, shopping and supporting things like the post office there, local businesses and schools. So they really are injecting a significant return to the local economy.” 

Some of the enterprise centres and hubs “are quite broad in their remit. They’d have a number of different types of sectors operating out of them. Others are very specific. You might have a food-specific hub or one dealing with the creative arts. An example would be Creative Spark in County Louth, a print studio with twenty-four hour access to printmaking workshops and a visual arts resource.” 

 The Community Enterprise Centres plough any profits they make back into the centres or hubs which benefit the local community. “While they are profit-making, they are profits with a purpose as opposed to providing endowments for shareholders. The various businesses pay rent (to the enterprise centres). Rent tends to be market competitive but there’s no one-size-fits-all. It will vary from location to location. And there are particular supports in place for start-ups and emerging scale-ups.” 

The model in most enterprise centres is an anchor tenant of a large company contributing a large percentage of rent to the centre.

The first step for anyone starting a business is to go to their Local Enterprise Office (LEO). It will work with the person to identify the best route.  

“Depending on what the requirements are, they’ll be directed to an innovation hub or space in an enterprise centre. Because this comes with an overhead, very often people will start the business at home and then scale up to a centre as the business grows. What we like to see happening is that they will move into the community and acquire a building elsewhere. The space they leave behind is then taken up by another newer business.” 

 While the CEAI is a good news story in terms of giving start-ups support and opportunities, Ms Finn says the constant challenge is funding certainty and financial sustainability. 

“Obviously there is rent coming in. But that doesn’t necessarily meet the overheads. The really important piece is salary costs attached to the centres. What we have seen, particularly in the last two years, is talent and skills from experienced managers and CEOs leaving the sector. They don’t have security of tenure.” 

 The “key issue” is career progression within the sector. “There are about 500 staff around the country employed by the enterprise centres to support the tenant companies. But the career pathways aren’t as visible as we’d like them to be.” 

 Added to that is a heavy workload for the staff running the centres. 

“The ratio of tenants to staff is 36:1. It’s too much work to put on the shoulders of one person. All our staff are incredibly overworked. I did a comparison with the HEI (higher education institutions). For every eighteen students in that sector, there is one staff member to support them. It speaks volumes. We are under-funded, under-resourced and under-recognised, doing incredible work. We need the lens of the government looking at the enterprise centres.” 

Cork startup very glad of enterprise support 

Australian herbalist and naturopath, Sandra O’Connell (who is married to an Irish man and has been living here for ten years) runs her natural herbal products company, Raw Botanicals, from the Mitchelstown Community Enterprise Centre. 

When she moved to Ireland, her goal was to continue what she had been working at in Australia. Ms O’Connell, who does some of her work at home, forages for herbs and makes balms that bring relief. She uses only organic materials, infusing the herbs, and “harnessing their medicinal potential.”

 Being able to work in her local community enterprise centre “made it much easier for me to set up here. It’s very hard to find places when you’re working on your own, unless you open a big shop. I didn’t want that. I just wanted a small office. I pay rent which is quite reasonable, I have internet access, lighting and coffee facilities.” 

 When she arrived in Ireland, Ms O’Connell got some mentoring from her LEO. She recommends getting involved with the Local Enterprise Office. “It gave me an understanding about how revenue and VAT works.” (She is critical of the high VAT rate of 23% she pays which, in Australia, is just 10%).

 Ms O’Connell praises the people running the enterprise centre. “They’re a great support, very friendly and nothing seems to bother them.”