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

We should not waste the opportunity these centres present, especially as State funds have been spent on them.

I have a question to Ms Sinnamon on finance. I have had a bee in my bonnet for a long time about securing financing of between €1 million and €5 million. I am repeatedly told that €750 million is available for allocation but it is not clear how to access this funding. There appears to be some form of blockage to accessing funding for commercialised research and intellectual property, which will be important for job creation. Every time I ask about this, I am given a different answer.

What is the position with regard to mentorship? Where will the new database and technology be located that will drive entrepreneurship and mentorship? Enterprise Ireland's website provides a great deal of information. Would it possible to allow entrepreneurs to submit a series of questions on the website? At present, they must search through a large volume of information. A person accessing the website may not know anything about some of the programmes. For this reason, it would be preferable to have a question and answer type feature on the site that would allow a person to move through a programme step by step. I have heard some feedback on this issue. Is it possible to introduce a national pre-seed programme for people who have an idea but are not seeking seed capital? In other countries, a certain amount of funding is provided, perhaps for one year, to develop or incubate an idea?