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

There are no targets. The old target of bank approvals did not work, because even though the banks were perceived to have been meeting growing targets in approving facilities, the actual amount of new lending was declining. We are now going to be more granular on what exactly is happening. My ambition is to set targets in regard to things that matter to business. It had a certain merit but it was not delivering the sort of change required. The commitment is to go in more closely, looking at individual products.

I think there is an improvement. The Deputy will see that the refusal rates have dropped. The RedC surveys have shown that refusal rates have dropped quite considerably, from 30% to 20%. Within the pillar banks, it is quite low - I think it is around 16%. If one looks within the pillar banks for export-oriented companies, it is quite low. Undoubtedly, there is an improvement. The interviews are taking place this week for the CEO of Microfinance Ireland.

I do not disagree with the Deputy that crowd financing is an area at which we should look really hard. There was a crowd financing gig last week which I and the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, attended. We are looking really hard at it. Obviously, we cannot commit to one company in particular because of public procurement issues. We are looking really hard at what we can do to promote that.

The Deputy referred to job targets. One cannot take the IDA for granted. Over recent years the number of jobs created went from 5,000 net to 6,000 net to 6,500 net and it will be at the mid-point of those figures for next year. We are taking a mid-point from what were regarded as three record years as our target. If the IDA delivers that, it is a reasonable target. We will continue to review it but the additional resources are justified. The authority is not overstaffed for what it is delivering. There was not spare capacity to deliver more jobs with existing resources.

We have examined with the authority areas where it could do more and it has targeted specific sectors, emerging companies and emerging countries and that is why we are putting more feet on the ground to deliver the additional 10,000 jobs over a number of years. It will be approximately 1,200 a year but that is a credible target. If we can continue to grow export oriented companies at the rate of recent years through the two agencies over the next number of years, we will be doing well. We will be looking to see whether the domestic economy can respond to that export-led performance. This year, we will look for a recovery in the construction sector from the floor it has hit. If we can keep the two agencies performing at this level, that would be a good performance in the teeth of difficult export markets.

There is not a regional enterprise policy currently. This is the first time we are seriously examining how we can design such a policy.