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

Starting with the south east, Enterprise Ireland identified two companies which had received approval for grant aid without fulfilling the conditions laid out in the scope of the scheme. Company A's stated intention was to sell off the company after phase 2 clinical trials, company B's application did not make any forecast of jobs to be achieved and the said forecast did not meet the scheme requirements. It found that the valuation documentation was inadequate. This was a pilot scheme launched in the south east. The object was to assist new start-up companies and individual entrepreneurs. Some 14 companies were approved for funding under the scheme, five fully completed the study while a further five are in the process of completion. In both cases the evaluation team deemed the application to be of sufficiently high quality to be awarded the funding, particularly as regards their development and employment potential. While the applications in question did not fully meet all the relevant criteria they did meet all legal-based eligibility criteria with regard to the awarding of funding by Enterprise Ireland. To date one of the companies has drawn funding of €10,000.

Enterprise Ireland acknowledged that there were shortcomings in the pilot scheme. These have been addressed in a subsequent roll-out of the programme, specifically via clearly defined terms of reference which details eligibility criteria, evaluation criteria and the involvement of external evaluators. Enterprise Ireland has subsequently rolled out the competitive feasibility funds to the north west, north east and midlands. The lessons learned from the pilot scheme and the audit report have fully informed the more robust procedures and strengthened criteria that are now in place for these schemes.

The internal audit did its job in terms of the way it worked. The value of Enterprise Ireland payments and the capital was €36 million outturn. The allocation for 2014 is €49 million. There are issues, obviously, around timing of grant or draw-downs and there is a €3 million carryover.

Enterprise Ireland's presence in the BRIC countries includes 33 personnel in the Asia-Pacific region. While south Paulo is included I will have to find out the staff numbers there. Some 33 are spread across Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul and New Delhi.