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

On the small business envoy, it will work with all government bodies to encourage the principle of thinking small first. First my Ministers of State, Deputies Sherlock and Perry, and I have used our action plan for jobs as our route to get cross-government thinking about a lot of issues. This has been effective in developing sectoral opportunities. For example, the health innovation hub has been very useful to some SMEs in Cork, where we have run six pilot projects. We are trying to think outside the box and to get departments - not traditional Departments - to work with SMEs. MOMENTUM, which is being developed by the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Cannon, is a vehicle for enhancing skilled preparation for SMEs who are in a position to recruit. It will act as a bridge between people out of work and the skill needs of SMEs as we see them. We are focused not only on specific programmes like the microfinance and loan guarantee schemes but on trying to get that broader impetus into the system. That is one of the functions of the Minister of State, Deputy Perry.

Another area of responsibility for us is the interface with Europe in terms of good and bad practice and what we can learn from others. This benchmarking exercise is valuable. My Department is currently engaged in a review of entrepreneurship in terms of how we can make the environment for start-ups better. The Deputy will probably have had sight of the Central Bank data which indicated that two-thirds of all jobs in Ireland have come from companies, international and Irish owned, in the first five years of their existence. This is vital. This is another initiative which derives from the think small first stable.

The legislation dealing with the local enterprise offices, LEOs, is ready and will be brought before the Dáil and Seanad as soon as both schedules permit. The Deputy also raised the issue of procurement.