Ms Karen Hynes:

The Minister chairs the SME entrepreneurship task force that is overseeing the implementation of the SME entrepreneurship growth plan, which is a roadmap for the SME sector in Ireland. It has ten priorities. Membership of the group is made up of representatives of the SME sector, including all the relevant bodies and individual founders of companies. One of the measures the Government has introduced is the SME test, which is where we ask people developing new legislation, as part of the regulatory impact assessment, to look specifically at the impact on smaller companies and SMEs to see whether it is appropriate for any mitigation to be taken. That SME test is now being applied to legislation in our Department and five other Departments across government. That was one of the things that also emerged from the SME growth plan.