Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for the presentation and congratulate it on the successes achieved by Enterprise Ireland throughout the year. One point we would make on a regular basis is that indigenous exports are the smaller relation as opposed to FDI exports. On a policy level, from our perspective, there is a major need to redress that balance. I wish Enterprise Ireland luck in that objective.
The budget of Enterprise Ireland has been falling over the past number of years. Has the budget fallen due to a lack of demand from potential clients within the State or because of a decision made by a Minister that less will be allocated to its role? In respect of regionalisation, I believe there is a big push within the IDA to really regionalise its objectives into the future, possibly because of a lack of emphasis in the past. I am looking at the regional breakdown of Enterprise Ireland's figures. The mid-east has 43% of the jobs and roughly 43% of the increase in jobs, but the mid-west has 7% of the jobs and 3% of the increase. We also see that the west and the midlands have 7% of the jobs. While the distribution by Enterprise Ireland is much better than that of the IDA, there is still a regional issue there. The argument often made is that it is a push-pull experience - in other words, there is a difficulty if one does not have entrepreneurs in the region to pull the demand for Enterprise Ireland. An organisation such as Enterprise Ireland would have objectives for better regionalisation, so there are things it can do to improve that. Could Ms Sinnamon talk us through what Enterprise Ireland hopes to do on that in the next year?
I have been in discussion with a couple of local enterprise offices around the State. I know Ms Sinnamon mentioned that Enterprise Ireland is rolling out training, but some LEOs have not received training and I believe they are identifying a problem both with themselves and their integration with the local authority and Enterprise Ireland.
The BRIC countries remain a phenomenal challenge to us in respect of exports. I know Ms Sinnamon has given the headline figures within the report, but could she talk about the trends within the figures regarding research and development? In respect of North-South co-operation, we met with Science Foundation Ireland yesterday and one of the refreshing elements it mentioned was that it is working with Seagate in Derry and the Tyndall National Institute. They are providing services to the North for free. Could Ms Sinnamon talk about the level of North-South co-operation by enterprise agencies and about objectives into the future?
Is there anything Enterprise Ireland can do with regard to legacy debt? A number of businesses have closed and a number of them are teetering on the brink of closure due to a millstone of legacy debt, although they are functional businesses. There was a report in The Irish Timesabout €27 million worth of support for firms that are connected with the board of Enterprise Ireland. Confusingly, the report then went to state that €271,000 was paid in financial supports to companies last year compared to €3.1 million earlier. Is Ms Sinnamon aware of that report? If so, could she explain it to us?