Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the councillors to the meeting. This is an area in which I have been involved for many years. I have always had great concerns about the inconsistency of enterprise boards' as someone on the ground who has accompanied small business owners to meet board officials' and about their role. Although they give out money, I have always been concerned about the many training courses around the country, which are not evaluated, and so on. We have for some time been hearing that LEOs will be the magic wand to sort all this out and I look forward to that. While everybody appearing before the committee has discussed them, nobody has outlined what they will do. They are supposed to benefit people on the ground who want to set up or expand a business. That means they will only have to make one telephone call to get a range of supports.

Local government reform, Leader funding and so on will be part of this under the social economic committee. My understanding was that everybody would have a say on the committee and the LEOs would also be represented on them. I am not privy to the contents of the upcoming legislation or the implementation report but that would make sense and my understanding is public representatives will have that role. It is in all our interests to discuss what we will do for small business instead of how it will be delivered and who will have responsibility for it. That has got us into problems over the years. We built structures and the people within them spent their time keeping them in place. We need officials on the ground helping people who are at the pin of their collar and who are exhausted from trying to keep their businesses open, maintain employment and keep the economy going locally. I regularly hear in my constituency that nobody is talking about small business and supports and nobody is giving them credit for hanging in there and for trying to start new businesses, yet failures are discussed as if they are punishments. Fair play to anybody who starts a business. I have never met anybody who set up a business with the intention of failing. Something happens along the way and they often fail but they do not start out with that intention. Everybody on the committee knows my view on mentoring and that is where support should be targeted in order that people are guided, helped and given a different focus.

I refer to the activity of Microfinance Ireland since it was set up last October. As of 6 May, the number of applications received was 173, the number of loan approvals, 60; the number in progress, 16; the number declined, 82; and the number withdrawn, 17. Reference was made to the banks but the greatest problem they face is the lack of activity. New business is not coming forward and people are afraid to lend. There is fear and while the banks face many issues, this is one of the biggest.