Ms Avine McNally:

Thank you, Chairman, and I thank the members of the committee for giving me this opportunity to address the joint committee.

The points I will address have already been discussed, some at great length, in the earlier session. While I will mention them, because they reflect the concerns of our members and of the organisation, I will not labour them.

The Small Firms Association is the voice of small business. We represent approximately 7,500 small companies that employ fewer than 50 people. Since the establishment of county enterprise boards, in a similarly difficult economic climate in 1993, the network has contributed substantially to the development of start-up and micro-enterprises in Ireland. They gave direct assistance through their advice and finance but they have also paid a key role - this point has been made - in raising the profile of entrepreneurship throughout society, particularly through their schools programmes and in partnership with my organisation through the emerging ethnic entrepreneur programme. This is a key issue.

County enterprise boards have also been successful in leveraging EU funding, in addition to Government funding, to expand their range of services which they have developed and expanded as the needs of business have grown since 1993. They have been strong in developing relationships in local communities, across Government and through many of the other groups within the business community. This allows them to tap into a vast quantity of expertise and knowledge which has been supportive of many of their clients. In the current economic climate much of the advice and support they give is voluntary and free and can add to the business knowledge of many of their start-up clients. Many members of my organisation who availed of their services attribute their success to the support they received from their county enterprise board, particularly in the early years of their business being established.

The Small Firms Association has always been supportive of the stand-alone county enterprise board structure and of their strong presence throughout the regions. While we recognise that efficiencies could be made, and the recent oversight of Enterprise Ireland is welcome to give the boards a national coherence, we have concerns about the movement into local authorities. One of the concerns, which has been mentioned already, is the poor relationship the small business community tends to have with local authorities. Many view their local authority as a mere revenue collecting body.

The proposed structural change will be damaging to the enterprise agenda. It is difficult to understand how such a small group will survive in such a large organisation whose main priority is revenue collecting and imposing on these businesses that they are now are deemed to support.

We are also concerned that small businesses need state agencies to be honest brokers in giving them the best advice for their organisation. If this advice is to be influenced by local authority employees this credibility may, over time, be lost. Some of these individuals may turn into gatekeepers in terms of collecting rates, licence payments and so on. This could be an issue for the support that should be there for the establishment of small businesses.

A key concern is that we will lose the valuable time, expertise and knowledge that business people so generously give to county enterprise boards. There is a concern that by moving into local authorities the service may move away from its core market.

We must also talk about money. Budgets will be overseen and viewed by Enterprise Ireland, but in a local authority struggling to meet its budget how can we be assured that enterprise funding will be red-circled so that a council cannot, at some time in the future, view it as funding that is more essential for other services?

With regard to some points raised by Mr. Tom Hayes in the earlier session, the Small Firms Association is supportive of the online support services. We have been saying for a long time that they should be there. Equally, we believe the knowledge and competence collaboration of the sectoral regional networks will be beneficial when they are established and are up and running. The development of greater supply chains can be beneficial for many small and medium enterprises, both in working together and in linking with some of the larger agencies and companies that they may, traditionally, not have been able to access so easily.

Listening to Mr. Tom Hayes, we had concerns about other issues, which have been discussed already. A member of the committee asked what is the associated metrics. We would like clarification of that. I was concerned by the mention of enhanced services. Enterprise Ireland mentioned enhanced services being provided through the new structure, but all the services outlined in the presentation already exist. It would be good to have clarification on that.

Without labouring the point, there is huge concern at the focus being moved towards export and internationally focused businesses. While we recognise that the focus has to be on creating sustainable employment and on adding value to the local and national economy, we must bear in mind that the county enterprise boards support all start-ups. While many of these are businesses that will never export or trade internationally they will trade indigenously and are very important for their regions. This mandate must be protected.

In line with the EU Small Business Act, we believe there must be a full impact assessment of the implementation of this Government decision. This assessment must be conducted from the perspective of the small business community and small business user, rather than a Government Department. We also have concerns about the implementation process to date. While we understand it is ongoing, we are aware that there has been little or no involvement or focus on the end users and clients. We are also unaware of any action or analysis done to date by these implementation groups on how the county enterprise board clients and end users feel about the new structure and what they would like to see coming out of the new system.

I thank the committee for their attention. I will be happy to take any questions.