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

I will take a few of those questions. The Minister of State, Deputy English, might come back on the question on apprenticeship and its status, but the Deputy is correct to say that everyone must work on building its status. It has high status in Germany but does not yet attract that high status in this country. I believe the support of companies will make a difference. To be fair, the new Office of Government Procurement is making efforts and while it obviously has consolidated purchasing to get better value, it has protocols in respect of small business. When it issues tenders, it gives opportunities for people to comment on some of the tenders and the office has tried to develop in this regard. As it has a protocol for SMEs, there are opportunities for SMEs to engage. The Department has, through InterTradeIreland in particular as well as Enterprise Ireland, run very good programmes for the support of people seeking to engage in tenders, either singly or jointly. They have been well taken up, have had a good impact and demonstrate the impact of participation in take-up. Sometimes, it is a question of understanding the process. Best value rather than the lowest price is a fair point and I believe the system recognises best value rather than lowest price, but obviously one slipped through. I do not know what it slipped through but it got stuck in the blockage.

On the LEO staffing, the Department is conducting a review. Obviously, the LEO staffing has just been established and, as the Deputy is aware, the local enterprise offices comprise a combination of the old county enterprise boards and the business development units of local authorities. The Department is conducting a review of the staffing complement in them and, over time, it will seek to improve their capacity and innovation as well as promoting best practice and new thinking. This year, there has been a competitive call aimed specifically at the local enterprise offices whereby they can build collaboration with other players in the region such as an institute of education. If they come with entrepreneurial, marketing or managerial skills, they can compete for extra money and resources with the quality of what they put forward. I believe this is the way in which to go, that is, it is not simply stating that each LEO must have X number of people per head of population or whatever but that people who are doing new and interesting things can draw down new money. The Department is trying to encourage that sort of approach.

The local enterprise offices, LEOs, have a broad remit.

The point on services is true, in that we probably have not cottoned on to their importance for our growth. Internationally traded services account for more than half our aggregate exports, surpassing goods exports, even with the significantly valuable pharma sector. The top exporters are service companies, not goods ones. The IDA is alert to the role of services and has been instrumental in repositioning Ireland to attract such companies. Further down the supply chain in education and research, though, there is more work to be done. Innovation in services is not something in which our institutes of education have particular skill. Some of that is a question of process. We can develop new innovations in our services sector.