Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. When Enterprise Ireland was with us in November going through its view of the LEOs, I had a concern that the small local company, which was not interested in exporting and which would never be an exporter but which still could be an employment creator and provide a viable service - I am not into displacement; we do not want to encourage that - would be lost in the LEO structure, in particular in an Enterprise Ireland structure. In his presentation, the Minister acknowledged some improvements there. He might just reflect on that and that the LEOs should be good for all companies.

The Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, proposes to bring all the Leader funding - the Leader enterprise strand - into local authorities. Will the LEOs deal with Leader funding or will that be a separate wing of the local authority? If it is to be a separate wing, does that not undermine the whole one-stop-shop approach because certainly in Leader areas, Leader enterprise funding is essential? It will be under the local authority but will it be under a separate part of the local authority? Do we have EU approval for the enterprise side of things?

The Minister mentioned that the LEOs will be the one-stop-shop and that he wanted to start to increase the services. As he is redesigning the industrial relations machinery, will the LEOs have a role in being a one-stop shop at that end as well in terms of maybe providing NERA advice, or being an agent for NERA on the ground in terms of providing advice as opposed to enforcement?

The Minister referred to local authorities in his report and I have concerns about bringing an enterprise function into local authorities and I am still not convinced. He rightly mentioned that many local authorities have initiatives supporting enterprises but many of those are at town council level. Many of the really good initiatives at local authority level have come from town councils which will be abolished. In the larger local authorities envisaged by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, how will the Minister protect that spirit of enterprise and creativity? Will he give us an update on where we are with the industrial relations issues?

It is a bit of a bugbear but the 35 county enterprise boards all have 35 different brands and logos. One would not realise that the county enterprise board is actually a nationwide model. The Minister mentioned in his report that he has appointed a company to design a new logo. Will it be one brand and one logo for the entire country rather than many different ones? Did an SME get the gig?