LEITRIM’S LOCAL ENTERPRISE Office (LEO) spent just €30 on its opening event, compared to spends of more than €4,000 in other counties.

Previous figures show that Leitrim gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Enterprise Ireland funding, with a population of almost 32,000.

The county was the bottom of the table last year. However, figures are not yet available for 2014.

LEOs are trumped as a ‘first stop shop for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland’.

Figures released in a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary show that a total of €38,521 was spent on their opening events.

“Each LEO has a small allocation for events such as these and the costs are incorporated into each Office’s budgets for the year,”  Minister Richard Bruton said.

The closest spend to Leitrim was Dublin South with €310, despite a population of over 265,000.

Coming out on top was Tipperary with a spend of €4,385.

This was made up of €1,449 on catering, €502 on sound amplification, €250 on photography, and €1,200 on “miscellaneous” expenses, including a €1000 marquee hire.

Next was Dún Laoghaire, which has a population of more than 200,000 – out of a total of €4,297, €2,219.65 was spent on a marquee, PA system, video and photography, €2,007.60 on catering, and €70 on “security/car park”.

Enterprise Ireland noted that the cost of catering depended on time of launch

However, Leitrim spent just €30 – courier costs for the delivery of a stand.

A spokesperson for Enterprise Ireland said:

The tea and coffee was provided by the Leitrim County Council canteen or kitchen, and two small local companies used the event to showcase their home baking produce and supplied both scones and brown bread for the event free of charge.

Another office in Monaghan spent an event €500 on catering, while Kerry spent €172 on photography.

Read: Five counties received less than 1% of Enterprise Ireland funding last year >