Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I provided a submission for the joint committee which, I presume, has been circulated to members. I will not read it, rather I will deal with the broad issues involved. Perhaps members might then raise whatever concerns they harbour.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to reforming the system of supports for small and micro businesses. This is also a central plank of the Action Plan for Jobs 2012. Our ambition is to make small business a more central part of the national enterprise strategy. To a degree, small business has been operating on the fringes. The steps we are taking will bring it to the centre of enterprise strategy and help us in developing a much stronger local service. There are six key elements to delivering this change.

The first is the establishment of a centre of excellence within Enterprise Ireland which will be responsible for improving the environment for small business to bring the sector into the heart of national enterprise policy. It will build on the success of the city and county enterprise boards by developing new thinking and best practice with regard to the supports for small and micro business and strong development at local level. The local enterprise office will act as a first-stop shop. During the national consultation process following publication of the 2012 Action Plan for Jobs it was clear that people did not know what was available to them. Many small and medium enterprises did not know about the many good ideas and schemes available. This is not surprising because small business does not have the managerial time to allocate to research on the web to become familiar with these ideas. The first-stop shop will supply information on the necessary agreements and memoranda of understanding with the Revenue Commissioners, the Credit Review Office and the Companies Registration Office. The third element is to have an integrated national network in place of 35 separate boards. An integrated national network, with a centre of excellence, will set performance targets and provide for seamless progression for small business into the more ambitious programmes of Enterprise Ireland. Separate boards do not serve the needs of small business as effectively. An integrated national network will have the scope to be innovative. We decided to locate the office within the local authorities.

Reaction to our proposals has been positive. Most of the criticism has been directed at the idea of bringing the former county enterprise boards under the umbrella of the local authorities. This is essential in order to exploit the full potential of local areas to deliver a better environment for business. It is true, regrettably, that many small businesses regard the local authorities as part of the problem, as opposed to part of the solution, in creating a vibrant local business network. Enlisting the support of local authorities, to have them buy into their role in creating the best possible local environment, is central. This support will include important local services such as access to the planning and licensing systems and fire certification process. Local authorities can provide important services and opportunities for small businesses. We are aiming to have more open accountability as to the quality of that local business environment and to benchmark the progress being made. I refer to the pricing and quality of the service offered to small businesses by the local authorities. The County and City Managers Association has recently produced a document listing 2,000 positive facts about the work of local authorities across the country. We want to see these good ideas being copied across the network, particularly if local authorities are delivering something extra to small businesses.

More than 90% of our enterprises employing 62,000 people are at the heart of this strategy to build a strong indigenous engine of recovery in the economy. The culture created within the county enterprise boards is pro-enterprise which must be enhanced within the new environment. Those who created that culture will be incorporated into the service in order to maintain that continuity. The Enterprise Ireland small business centre of excellence will provide the training and supports to maintain this culture.
The Government approved the priority drafting of the Industrial Development (Micro-Enterprise and Small Business) Bill which will provide for the formal dissolution of the county and city enterprise boards and the transfer of their assets and liabilities to Enterprise Ireland. It will provide for the setting of a formal date for the simultaneous dissolution of the county enterprise boards and the formal transfer of staff, functions, assets and liabilities to Enterprise Ireland; the transfer of CEB staff to Enterprise Ireland as a first step in order to give legal certainty to the dissolution; and the preservation of certain continuing contracts. The Bill is not intended to set out in detail the service-level agreements which will be more dynamic and evolving documents.

In tandem with the drafting of the legislation, an implementation working group was established, chaired by my Department, comprising representatives of the key State stakeholders such as the county enterprise board network, city and county managers, county enterprise board chairpersons, Enterprise Ireland, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Other reform initiatives in my Department include the integration of the five employment rights and industrial relations bodies into two bodies. It is a more complicated change management system.

I will briefly outline key elements of the new approach. I have set out the proposed role of the local enterprise networks which will be the first-stop shops providing the grants and supports and acting as catalysts for further changes. The Enterprise Ireland centre of excellence will promote innovation and best practice within the small business network. It will also study international best practice. The new instrument of micro-finance has been established which will be predominantly administered through the local enterprise offices which are the initial point of contact for most applicants. The service level-agreement is the vital document and will be between Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices. I have emphasised the important role of the local authorities. Most far-seeing city and county managers recognise that the success of small business in their county or city will be crucial for their longer term success and it is important to harness that commitment.

The service-level agreement will set out protocols relating to budgets, project evaluation and approval; robust performance indicators; the roles and responsibilities of respective bodies; benchmark best practice; make provision for technical support to train and support staff who will produce annual plans to a high standard. The Enterprise Ireland centre of excellence will sharpen the mentoring area which has considerable potential to support businesses, even those which are not grant-aided. I refer to the success of businesses raising a loan and managing business which hinges on the quality of the mentoring system.

There is scope both to improve the quality of mentoring and also to develop specialties in mentoring attuned to the needs of individual businesses. In having a national network we will have a better opportunity to have a better fit with enterprises that emerge which, perhaps, have more specialist or sectoral needs that are particular to them.

There has been a great deal of consultation. The latest round of consultation ended on 18 January. We received more than 80 submissions, which we will obviously factor into the continuing development of this programme. We are determined to press ahead with this as rapidly as possible. Clearly, we are anxious to do it well but we also want to provide a good product that will support small business, which is at the heart of this. I will work very hard with Deputy John Perry, the Minister of State with responsibility for small business, to ensure not only that we secure the necessary buy-in across the system and within local authorities, our existing networks and within EI for the delivery of this but also, at the next stage, to ensure there is good understanding of what is available. When we launch the new offices with their logo there must be good quality information behind it, so when people go there they can expect a high standard of service.

There is much work still to be done. We are proceeding with that. Like all of these initiatives for change, it depends on the goodwill of the people to make this a success. The working group on which Clare Dunne, Dermot Sheridan, Áine de Bairtiséil and Claire Madigan are working is approaching this in a vigorous manner. Obviously there are always issues to be resolved. Unions have concerns about a change like this but we are managing that process. We are determined to push ahead rapidly with it. I believe it will be a worthwhile change in an area which most Deputies would recognise as being central to a successful enterprise policy.