Mr. Padraic McElwee:

I might address some of the questions specifically relating to LEOs and then I will hand over to Mr. Clancy. In terms of the lean for micro and green for micro programmes, Deputy Stanton identified one of the companies that we do use, the Leading Edge Group. It is very important that we get people with the appropriate expertise and knowledge to make those interventions with businesses. That represents good value for money. Each local enterprise office procures a panel of appropriately skilled mentors and facilitators to deliver the programmes. To be honest, that includes upskilling the staff within the local enterprise office as well to ensure we have a good working knowledge and understanding of the issue. They have the in-depth expertise, however.

The student enterprise programme is massively successful. You get a great buzz if you ever attend one. There is great enthusiasm. I do not have information on assessment. I would need to come back to the committee individually on that. Anecdotally, what we tend to see is that while a lot of student enterprises are great, they then go off and explore other opportunities. Quite a number come back to it, probably in their late 20s or early 30s. That is when we see the impact, not immediately, but they love participating in a programme like this.

I will make a comment on the Open Doors initiative. We did a pilot programme with Technological University Dublin on supporting people with disabilities. There were approximately 24 participants. We provided expert mentor support into it. My understanding from feedback is that four or five of the participants went on to start a business. We will now start to work with them through our normal channels and see if we can enable them. The positive news is that the programme has now got the support to be continued.