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

I apologise for being late but I was delayed coming from Cork. Having listened to others talk I have realised that the sector has great potential.

Last Thursday I attended a conference held at the European Parliament Office on Molesworth Street organised by a European social enterprise group. I heard part of the conversation that took place. I wish to draw on the interesting analogy made by Mr. Coughlan that most small companies are social enterprises because they invest money into either paying themselves a wage, fund capital or whatever. He spoke passionately about growing a business, the various funding mechanisms available along the way and that there are great gaps in funding when one goes into the workplace. I agree with him that there are many similarities between social enterprise and normal entrepreneurship and that there are great gaps in the funding available for social entrepreneurship. We have a great opportunity to get some money for social entrepreneurship from Europe because this is a new conversation. At the conference last week I heard that a conference has been arranged for January in Strasbourg and I think somebody from the committee should attend.

Social entrepreneurship is an interesting new area. As some members will be aware, I have been involved in the area through the establishment of the Cork Foundation last March. It was established in order to match funding provided by the diaspora and invest in Cork by funding enterprise, entrepreneurship, businesses and social entrepreneurship. We held our founders' dinner last Friday night and funded our first entrepreneur, which is based at the Rubicon business centre, and a further €15,000 was given to a crèche in the North Lee area. There is great financial starvation at present and people cannot find money.

Mr. Coughlan is right that one needs soft support and people who specialise in sustainability, leadership and mentoring. Everything should be interlinked but it seems that we are dealing with social enterprise and the SME sector separately. We have a great opportunity to merge both types of entrepreneur because we are all trying to treat the same issues. Any community in a rural part of Ireland that wants to survive needs a co-op or social enterprise scheme that will bring businesses together so that they can afford to pay an accountant, the rates bill and other bills. They could all work together in a shared fashion. The day of setting up a business on one's own and surviving in a small town is gone. A lot of conversation needs to take place. There is not much difference between social enterprise and businesses.

I missed what Mr. Mulconry said on taxation and I ask him to repeat his comments.