Mr. John Murphy:

I will respond briefly and then pass over to Mr. Shanahan. The Chairman and committee will appreciate that I cannot set out what will or will not be in the action plan for 2014 given that it has not been finalised or submitted to Government for approval.

We have identified a number of priorities and these have been well flagged by the Minister and reflected in budgetary and other decisions, including the focus on entrepreneurship, as referred to by Deputy Collins. Following the report launched last week, work is under way on a policy on entrepreneurship which will be submitted to Government. I expect that some actions from this policy will be included in the 2014 action plan for jobs. Mr. Martin Shanahan will better answer the questions about social enterprise.

On the question of the credit guarantee and microfinance, the Deputy is correct that it takes a while for people to understand these initiatives. We are working to establish better ways of communicating to people. We expect the banks to take responsibility to ensure that their customers are informed about these options. We have also worked closely with the Credit Review Office. We are considering initiatives to enable us to understand why in some cases there are low levels of demand when there is a clear need for financing. We have put a lot of time and effort into developing non-banking financing measures.

I will ask Mr. Shanahan to deal with the questions about online trading. The lead responsibility for that initiative rests with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

A fair deal of work has been completed by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources - albeit with some prompting from our Department - on the provision of rural broadband and how best to support the provision of broadband. The Deputy is correct that it is critical to the economy in which businesses work. There is a wider focus on rural development other than in specific measures in the Action Plan for Jobs. Work is under way by the Ministers, Deputies Hogan and Coveney, on foot of the report of the commission for the economic development of rural areas, which is due shortly. I expect this will recommend specific actions which, if not filtered immediately into the Action Plan for Jobs, will be in the future.