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

I thank Deputy Calleary for complimenting the staff at my Department. They have put in a huge effort at a time when all sections of the Department face the pressure of declining resources. Politicians have the advantage of sitting at the top of that success, but every achievement is like an iceberg: most of the work is well below the waterline and no one sees it.

Deputy Calleary is right about access to finance. Although we are working off 2011 data, access to finance is a huge challenge and the fallout has been particularly acute in Ireland. The official data show a declining refusal rate for SMEs - RedC's SME survey shows a continuous decline in the refusal rates, so the situation is improving. The other positive signs are that new credit issues to small business have increased in the past two quarters for the first time since the recession started. On State initiatives, there are 64 live credit guarantee facilities worth €9 million, the estimated number of jobs created is 400 and the number of jobs maintained is 140, therefore the estimated impact is 540 jobs.

On microfinancing, 98 loans have been approved with a total value of €1.53 million, which is an approval rate of 43%. I look to build on that. I have undertaken a review of the loan guarantee scheme within a year of its operation, as I indicated that I would. We are looking at that. We can do better. Microfinancing is in a growth phase - understanding and familiarity in the banks and others is growing, as is the promotion of it. The initiatives are worthwhile. They complement the other €2 billion-worth of credit to SME initiatives through Enterprise Ireland and the seed and venture capital scheme, the National Pension Reserve Fund, with its three funds, the development capital fund and the innovation fund. We have €2.5 billion-worth of what could be called non-bank funding instruments for SMEs. As Deputy Calleary rightly says, we need to sweat those assets to get them to deliver. Other than the more seasoned seed and venture capital scheme, those initiatives are in their infancy.

On the "think small first" principle, there has been progress since 2011. I am not saying that the matter has been solved, but there is greater oversight of the finance directive in this area. We have a new head of the public procurement body and he has pledged specifically to get engaged in SME penetration of the procurement. Some of that would relate to what is called innovative procurement, as well as conventional instruments such as unbundling and ensuring that there is access for SMEs.

As Deputy Calleary rightly acknowledges, the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry is working specifically on an initiative to simplify licensing, which is one of the areas in 2011 that we were criticised about. We start the work with the retail sector this year and we hope that a common portal will take out, I think, 33% of the associated admin costs.

There is scope to improve how we get out information. I found that when I went around the country. In the beltway, we assume that people know about JobPlus or the seed and venture capital scheme and so on. We have created many initiatives in the past year, and to get out the message we have used the CRO, the Companies Registration Office, our agencies, the new LEO, local enterprise offices network - LEOs are replacing CEBs, city and county enterprise boards - and we have linked with chambers of commerce to use their networks. Although it continues to be an issue, the return of employment growth to the economy presents a good opportunity to step up our communications and we will definitely seek to do that.

The EU is very much aware that SME finances are a key area of concern. During our Presidency, the finance Ministers and the European Council looked very hard at the issue. Money is emerging through the EIF, the European investment fund and the European Investment Bank. They are devising additional schemes and they have funded a number of initiatives in Ireland in the past 12 months. Activity is growing and less conventional funding mechanisms are increasingly being looked at. There is a growing recognition that traditional bank financing will not be the major pillar of the system that it has been and we need to evolve alternative funding instruments. There is much thinking going on at EU and national level on that issue.

Deputy Calleary asked about state aid rules. Given the present difficulties, there has been relaxation of the stringent state aid rule in some cases to try and deal with the crisis. State aid will continue to evolve. We were pleased that in the course of our Presidency, we succeeded with other member states in getting the Commissioner to back off from the idea that large companies would not be aided in C regions. Negotiations continue on the smaller print of the approach to be taken.

We need the rules on state aid to have sufficient flexibility to allow states to use it appropriately, without the strongest dictating with their financial weight and using it in a distorting way. I understand the Department of Finance has made it clear that routine inquiries on the Irish tax rules were made by the Commission. Irish tax rules are statute based and they are well known.