Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis na hoifigigh a tháinig isteach agus a rinne cur i láthair an-suimiúil. It is important when we talk about these issues that we contrast the position with what we are up against. We are in the midst of probably the worst enterprise and jobs environment this State has experienced in 50 to 70 years. For all the good that Enterprise Ireland has managed to do during the past year, there has been a net increase of six jobs with regard to Enterprise Ireland companies.

This shows the stark challenge faced by Enterprise Ireland.

The pace of reform in the microenterprise area is quite shocking in that the former Minister, Batt O'Keeffe, raised the change in county enterprise boards a considerable number of years ago but it still is ongoing. I was shocked to hear the planning stage will extend until December and legislation is not anticipated until the next quarter of next year. A representative from the Irish Exporters Association who appeared before the joint committee stated that at present, because of the state of not knowing, there was inertia within county enterprise boards that was having a serious effect. Consequently, over the past three or four years, a time when small businesses and enterprises actually have needed the most support, there has been this inertia in this particular segment. Members would like to see this reform up and running as soon as possible and this is extremely important. One issue mentioned by Mr. Hayes concerned the make-up of the implementation group. Does the implementation group include representatives of SMEs or of SME representative organisations because that is key to good development of that area? Sinn Féin has a major problem with the plans. The party considers the fit between Enterprise Ireland and the county enterprise boards to be quite good even though Enterprise Ireland's regional delivery has been uneven in the party's experience. We believe this could have created difficulty in respect of county enterprise boards in local areas. However, the fit with the local authorities is a wrong fit. The culture of local authorities is not pro-enterprise and in many areas, local authorities are the enemies of small business in the context of their associated costs and procedures. I always think it is akin to three Irish people going to an Australian city, in that it will be the Irish accents and not that of the Australian city that will change. Similarly, in the case of three of four people from an enterprise agency going to a local authority, it is unlikely their enterprise culture will alter massively the local authority culture. The reality is the local authority culture may alter that of the enterprise agency to the negative. This is one of Sinn Féin's major problems in this regard.

I refer to some of the information provided by Mr. Hayes, who mentioned the number of planned jobs high-potential start-up units sought to create. Typically, what is the ratio between planned and actual jobs from high-potential start-ups? What is the failure rate of high-potential start-ups? What is Enterprise Ireland's experience with the credit famine being experienced by businesses and the agency at present? In addition, I refer to a measure that should be developed in this context. Many small to medium enterprises are really stuffed in respect of the local market and export markets therefore are necessary. I have been involved in enterprise development for approximately seven years and one measure I saw that really worked was a programme called Operation Shamrock, in which small businesses in local areas were hand-held into the target market. In other words, an enterprise agency would select five or six really good local enterprises within a county, for example. The agency would identify the target market in the export market and would warm that target market for the companies concerned. It would then set up the meetings, hand-hold them over to the sales meetings and perhaps even chair the sales meetings until the aforementioned small businesses got their first export experience under their belts. This was a major plus in the way it was developed. Perhaps Mr. Hayes will answer some of these questions.