Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

My Department, through Forfás, recently commissioned an independent review of the role of the city and county enterprise boards, CEBs. This review was conducted by Fitzpatricks Associates. It involved consultations with all relevant interested parties and represents an in-depth, objective study of the work of the boards.

Notwithstanding the success of the county enterprise boards in promoting entrepreneurship and development of new micro-enterprises over the ten years of their existence, it was considered timely to review their operation against the background of the major economic changes which took place in Ireland over the period. The review largely endorsed the role of the boards and concluded that there is justification for continued State support for micro-enterprises and that the county enterprise board network should continue to play a useful role in the overall national enterprise development policy.

There are a series of recommendations contained within the review relating to the future activities and structure of the county enterprise boards. These include recommendations for county enterprise boards to renew the focus on the core enterprise mission, tighten the criteria on the provision of financial support so as to address the issues of potential deadweight, displacement and duplication more systematically, and move more towards the use of repayable funding.

The City and County Enterprise Board Network represents only one element of the national enterprise policy and I am considering the Fitzpatricks report and its findings with a view to bringing recommendations to the Government at an early date.

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