Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives. I congratulate them on last year's set of figures and the prospects are encouraging for this year. I served on a county enterprise board and we had good input from the Enterprise Ireland. I had a concern at that time about the funding allocated to county enterprise boards in comparison to funding from Enterprise Ireland. Is there any sign of an improvement on that? The boards are now based in a local authority building and it is much easier for people engaged in start up enterprises to call to them, bearing in mind there is not an Enterprise Ireland office anywhere to which they could call. Is there any prospect additional funding would be allocated to the local enterprise offices, LEOs, given that they are now based in more recognisable buildings compared to where they were previously located?

The main issue people raise with me is what is available. This issue is raised by people in the LEOs and people who want to know what is available from Enterprise Ireland. People say there is a portal in term of the LEOs but I only discovered a week ago that a LEO was taking information from a leaflet I had set out on what is available rather than from information available from Enterprise Ireland or the Department.

How much does it cost on a net basis per job created, having regard to Enterprise Ireland's allocation? We have to ascertain if we are getting value for money in that respect.

I was on a trade mission 20 years ago. Enterprise Ireland had an office in Seoul in Korea at one stage and I ventured into it a long time ago. There seems to be opportunities for larger companies employing ten or 15 people. Are there opportunities on trade missions available for small companies emerging from the LEOs that could move on to become Enterprise Ireland clients?