Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have discussed some of the issues the Deputy has raised previously. We certainly discussed them at the SME task force that the Tánaiste set up over two years ago to focus and see if we need another agency or if we can reach the companies we want to reach through our existing structures. Our best estimate is that it is best to use the structures we have that have worked extremely well, including IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs that are reaching all those companies. We must try to use those structures to reach an even greater number of companies. We can do that. The framework announced by the Tánaiste recently and the White Paper set out the ambition to reach more companies and increase the number of companies exporting by over 2,000.

We have the structures in place. There is no need for another agency because there will be a cost with that, including planning, setting up and legislation. That might just complicate matters. We can strengthen our offering and reach those companies we have been reaching and dealing with in recent years through the Covid supports administered by the LEOs, the local authorities and our agencies. We are doing quite well on that. I am open to seeing where the Deputy thinks the gaps are. We think we have the structures in place and that the changes have been made to reach those gaps and to work with companies that have an ambition to export. The Deputy is right in that we want to encourage more companies to come forward to avail of the offerings and supports there are and to avail of the reach of new markets. We call out the benefits of the locally traded sector in the White Paper and there is a desire to do exactly as the Deputy has suggested; to better support them. We can probably best do that through digitalisation, the green agenda, the micro green programmes and a number of initiatives that are already on offer to them.

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