Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the flood damage, parts of east Waterford were included in that scheme. The businesses there were supported in the same way as businesses in Galway, Louth and Cork were. I can assure the Deputy there was no preferential treatment on the basis of geography. The Red Cross has supported businesses in the same way, regardless of where the damage has occurred. Infrastructure damage is a different issue. It is up to local authorities to make a case or an application to the Department of local government and, ultimately, to the Department of Transport for infrastructure that has been damaged significantly by flooding. I think Cork County Council is in a similar space to Waterford in terms of putting physical infrastructure back in place, including roads, bridges, drainage systems and so on. I suspect the Government will respond in a generous way to reasonable asks in that regard.

I am more than happy for the Deputy to be briefed by officials in the Department on any aspect that he might be interested in. This brief is a much wider one than many people realise in terms of the different areas that we are involved in. Obviously, the agencies have a huge part to play in economic development in Ireland, given the number of people that work for companies that are supported by IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland or the LEOs. Between 550,000 and 560,000 people are employed in either Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland companies, which is a significant number. I am conscious of that.

A huge number of SME supports are in place. Some of these are in the form of innovation vouchers, some in the form of mentoring, some in the form of venture capital funding and some in the form of advice and direction through the LEOs. There are a huge number of decarbonisation and sustainability green schemes as well. Some of them are low-cost funds. SMEs can access a significant suite of supports which, obviously, we need to constantly improve. They are available. As I have said, many SMEs can get LEO supports when they would not have previously been able to do so because they would not have qualified. In other words, they might employ 15, 20 or 30 people. As long as they are manufacturing and-or exporting, they can get support through LEOs, whether they are soft or direct financial supports.

There is a role for collective bargaining. However, I do not accept the assertion that SMEs do not have say in terms of being listened to by Government. They do. We have an enterprise forum. We also have a tourism and hospitality forum, which met last week. I interact on multiple levels with SMEs and, indeed, with ISME on those platforms. The LEEF is not the only form of interaction. There are multiple Departments that interact on the LEEF, including the Department of the Taoiseach. It works reasonably well at the moment. I am open to ISME potentially being a part of that, but I want to make sure that we keep the effectiveness of the LEEF system that is working quite well at the moment. It is important to say that is only one discussion platform that we have.