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

I thank the Deputy for her comments. We are not moving immediately to a stand-alone mentoring system outside the service. We provide for mentoring within a network overseen by Enterprise Ireland's centre of excellence. There will also be Enterprise Ireland's own mentoring service.

I envisage a natural evolution of an improved service in the development of the mentoring service over time. It will not be different tomorrow, but we will move to make it different over time. We have already expanded the role in that CEBs are providing the first point of contact with micro-finance, which is entirely outside the traditional area of manufacturing and internationally traded services. I refer to those in the domestic economy to whom a service is being provided. We will seek to develop instruments to support innovative businesses, even those that do not fall into the traditional categories. This represents a natural evolution.

From my experience of banks turning down credit applications and my work with the CRO, it is clear to me that the quality of business plans and the mentoring support is not up to scratch. The way small business presents its face to banks is not good enough. It needs to be improved and we need to work on it. It will be important to extend a network from the LEO into the wider business community, be it through chambers of commerce or others working in this field, to improve in this area. It is an area in which we need to learn and develop rather than one we need to enter with a proposal for a stand-alone operation.

Relationship management, as mentioned by the Deputy, already exists to some extent. We will improve all the time the quality and range of mentoring support. This will represent a central gain.

Let us consider what will be different. Obviously, there will be a difference in respect of micro-finance. There will be a financial instrument to support businesses outside the traditional sectors. There will also be central training, and central standards will be set. Enterprise Ireland, through its network, will be helping to develop the skills and the reach of the enterprise office.

This will change over time but the immediate thing must be the first stop shop. We will go live with that so people can have confidence that if they go to one place, they can find out about credit review, microfinance or seed capital relief from Revenue. Whatever it is, they will have good access to that point. We will develop this service as we go along. I do not believe this is the end. This is just putting in a new structure and we need to develop and learn from what we have.