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

Mr. Calleja Crespo is very welcome. I thank him for coming to visit us in Ireland. The trip to Brussels in January was inspirational, as is Mr. Calleja Crespo today.

The members of this committee are very interested in the subject of access to finance and supporting SMEs, and entrepreneurships in particular, and the challenges they face. On access to finance, I agree with Mr. Calleja Crespo that we need different forms of finance outside of banks. That is one of the major challenges, but how do we do that? He spoke about disseminating information to SMEs. Is it possible to do that closer to the people, as in a regional way, as opposed to it being done in our capital city or large areas here such as a county or district? The issue of funds for entrepreneurships and SMEs is linked somewhat to Europe and would be underwritten by Europe. That is my first question.

A subject close to my heart is mentoring. The two most important areas for me are access to finance and mentoring, or what I call soft supports. In terms of the digital economy, we could have a closed network mentoring service across Europe. For example, if an Irish business wanted to expand into France or a Spanish business wanted to expand into Ireland, they should have access to a network that can overcome language barriers and so on. Europe will have to lead in such a supporting system.