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

I thank the delegates for the report. I congratulate Enterprise Ireland on 2014 being such a successful year. There are fears about Brexit and discussions are ongoing. There may, potentially, be a referendum in 2016-17. Has the agency examined the implications of a Brexit for companies exporting to the UK market?

Companies are finding it difficult to acquire staff and have to recruit overseas. Is the agency advising them on how to best source people? Is it linking with some of the trading agencies in order that education and training programmes can be modified to address staff shortages in various sectors? This is linked with the input the agency may have into the new apprenticeships being provided. Are we being proactive rather than reactive?

Mr. Sherry has said the agency's target for the period 2014 to 2016 is the creation of 40,000 jobs. Is that a gross or a net figure? Previously, both gross and net figures were given to the committee.

Can the witnesses give us an indication of that?

The Irish Government has almost €10 billion of procurement. Some of that has been taken up by overseas companies, taking the place of Irish companies. I know Enterprise Ireland supports Irish companies that are supplying internally on the import substitution role. However, has it looked at that on the Irish procurement side and could we do something on that?

It was mentioned earlier that the role of the local enterprise offices, LEOs, is now more within the local authorities, which are the controlling bodies, even though the finance comes from Enterprise Ireland. The feeling I get is that the LEOs have lost their independence, given they would previously have had their own boards, and they are now more controlled than they were, with the decision-making taken out of their hands in many cases. Do the witnesses get that feeling from around the country, given it is quite a strong feeling in certain areas? There would not be the business sense within the local authorities that there would have been in the local enterprise boards, which were more independent.

I was at Maynooth University recently when it opened its business hub, which is an excellent facility. How much support is Enterprise Ireland willing to give universities to establish places like that? While Enterprise Ireland supports the start-up companies that might spin off from that, this type of facility creates an environment so the research is then spun into actual job creation.

One of the biggest export areas is the service sector. How much support does Enterprise Ireland give to service sector companies, given the LEOs do not support start-ups in the service sector as a potential export sector?