LEO Westmeath’s 145 jobs in year

The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in Westmeath created 145 jobs last year. It was the fourth-highest level of job creation out of all 31 LEOs in Ireland during 2023.

The news was announced at an Economic Development and Tourism SPC by the head of enterprise Christine Charlton.

She said: “We have expansion grants for businesses that are less than 18 months old and expansion grants for businesses greater than 18 months old. What that covers is equipment, 50% funding for equipment, salaries, and marketing – 50% up to €150,000 is what LEO can offer businesses, if it’s greater than that, we need Enterprise Ireland approval.

“There were 145 net jobs created by us through grant aid to business last year.”

Ms Charlton outlined other grants LEO offers such as Grad Start, a fund for businesses that employ five or more, of €30,000 over two years by hiring a grad student. Four businesses in Westmeath received that grant last year.

LEO also provides an Energy Efficiency grant, which is 50% funding up to €5,000 on heat pumps, smart energy controls, and upgrading equipment. “Businesses like restaurants and shops that are struggling at the moment can avail of this,” she said.

Some 1,360 businesses also participated in the 68 training programmes run by LEO Westmeath last year.

They also had “intensive” one-on-one advice sessions for over 100 people and held 30 seminars in 2023 on various business-related topics.

Ms Charlton said promoting tourism is also an important function of LEO. “We’re trying to get as much money into the county as we can to support tourism businesses and generate activity,” she said.

Director of services Ambrose Clarke heaped praise on the work LEO does on a local level.

“I’m very encouraged to see the great help LEO is doing for business in County Westmeath,” he said.

“There's a lot of businesses in Westmeath who are availing of their services.”