LEO Roscommon supported companies created 170 jobs last year
All the award winners at last year's County Enterprise Awards with Roscommon County Council and Roscommon Local Enterprise Office representatives. Pic: Gerard O'Loughlin
Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Roscommon supported companies created 170 jobs in 2025, up from the 153 created in 2024, according to the latest figures.
The net jobs created by LEO Roscommon supported clients in 2025 was 55, which considers companies that amalgamated, ceased trading and those that transferred on to Enterprise Ireland.
The new figures show that the LEO Roscommon financially supports 167 small businesses in its portfolio across the county and these companies in turn employ 1055 people.
The total national figures for the Local Enterprise Offices across the country were announced by Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail, Alan Dillon, T.D and showed that LEOs are now financially supporting 40,285 jobs across 7,148 companies.
Minister Dillon said that “the 31 Local Enterprise Offices continue to be the backbone of local economic development, supporting 40,285 jobs in 2025, the highest level since their establishment. Last year alone, LEO client companies created 7,261 new jobs, delivering a 7% increase on 2024 and marking the 12th consecutive year of jobs growth."
The head of enterprise at LEO Roscommon Louise Ward said that the “figures highlight the significant impact that the Local Enterprise Offices and their clients are making in driving economic growth across the country. The creation of over 7,000 jobs is only a small part of the role that LEOs are playing in fostering entrepreneurship and growing enterprise in towns, villages and communities all over Ireland.
“These jobs and clients’ figures only reflect those who have received financial funding from their LEO and do not capture the thousands more that receive the likes of Lean, Green and Digital supports or training and mentoring. The numbers are immensely positive and reflect the resilience of the small business sector and we look forward to growing our work with these businesses in 2026 and to help those who have a great idea to get started.”
Chief executive of Roscommon County Council Shane Tiernan said the job creation figures announced for 2025 illustrated another year of impressive job creation delivery by LEO in the county. “I’d like to complement all of the staff of our Local Enterprise Office for their outstanding work across our county. A ten per cent job creation increase over 12 months, representing the creation of 170 new jobs, reflects the strong performance of our small to medium sized business sector.
“LEO’s record of job creation and training, mentoring and upskilling as well as providing support for start-up and established businesses reflects a very positive economic outlook for our county which creates a positive climate for even further jobs growth.
“Roscommon County Council continues to invest significant resources in building our enterprise infrastructure. Facilities such as An Chistin Food Hub in Castlerea and the Monksland Innovation Hub will continue to drive the growth of start-up and scaling businesses while supporting businesses to become more greener, leaner and even more digitally savvy.”
Mr Tiernan went on to say: “As a council we are focused on supporting business innovation and economic growth. These figures illustrate our determination to attract more jobs and more investment to County Roscommon, which I’m confident will see increased jobs growth in the immediate future.”
Head of local enterprise and regions at Enterprise Ireland Anne Lanigan remarked that "strong employment results reflect the impact of the Local Enterprise Office network and the ambition of the small businesses it supports across the country. The continued growth in jobs, with 82% of the new jobs created last year outside Dublin, shows that entrepreneurs can start, grow and scale their businesses from anywhere in Ireland."
Since their establishment in 2014 LEOs have been for the first stop shop for entrepreneurs and small businesses and provide a range of supports including financial, mentoring, training and sector specific expertise to help guide businesses at any stage of their development.
They also run key initiatives to foster entrepreneurship across the country including Local Enterprise Week, National Women’s Enterprise Day, the Student Enterprise Programme and the National Enterprise Awards. They are also running a campaign encouraging small businesses to save time money and energy by availing of their competitiveness and productivity supports including Green, Lean and Digital for Business.
