Mr. Frank Ryan:

I agree with the Deputy on the high quality work which is carried out by city and county enterprise boards. One of our key objectives is to maintain high morale within those bodies. A couple of months ago, we asked all of the staff of the boards to come to Enterprise Ireland to have a chat about managing the process and to provide our input into it. The Government has decided to restructure the microenterprise and small business support system and to introduce, in due course, legislation to dissolve the 35 county and city enterprise boards and to establish instead local enterprise offices. To date, Enterprise Ireland has had a largely financial co-ordination relationship with the enterprise boards. The relationship will change fundamentally. We are in the process of setting up a centre of excellence on microenterprise, which we have not had before. The centre will work with the new local enterprise offices in relation to how they might operate. The process is advancing apace and three sub-committees have been established by our parent Department to work on challenges to a smooth and efficient changeover. Enterprise Ireland is represented on those sub-committees and contributing to their work.

Going forward, there will be a service level agreement between Enterprise Ireland and each local enterprise office which will set out exactly what is expected in return for the funding which will be made available. Performance indicators and a metrics driven system akin to the one in place in Enterprise Ireland itself will be put in place in respect of the enterprise offices. We have a great deal of time for the work of the city and county enterprise boards and we want to see it continue. It is important to every county to have local enterprise facilities because they are the main link to microenterprise. Enterprise Ireland is not that link. It operates perhaps one step up from that with a particular orientation towards exports. We are getting increasing transfers of companies from the county and city enterprise boards which have developed and are at the stage where they are becoming clients of Enterprise Ireland. It is a very positive development.