Mr. Kevin Sherry:

I suppose the first thing to say is that when we support companies, either directly or through seed and venture funds, it is not for the short term. It is for the long term. It is for the long-term growth and development of the company. That is the approach we take as an investor and is the approach that is taken by the seed and venture funds in which we invest. Absolutely, there will be short-term changes in the marketplace and valuations, which certainly affect listed companies and will affect the availability and cost of capital for early stage companies and, indeed, for companies at a later stage.

Maybe just to give the Deputy some data, first, in terms of companies that Enterprise Ireland has invested in and supported and have been sold through trade sales, we have realised directly over the past five years €242 million. The difference between the cost of those and that €242 million, in other words, the profit on them, was €129 million. I mentioned earlier on about the €47 million write-off during the same period in other companies. In terms of the write-off in terms of those companies, 46% of the companies in which those funds were written off were investments of €50,000 or less. It was a very early stage where we had put in a small amount of money to a company to help that company see whether there was a viable business there, typically, in the form of what we call our competitive start fund.

Similarly, in terms of our seed and venture side, if you look at what Enterprise Ireland has supported over the past ten years in terms of seed and venture capital funds, you can see that we have put in €361 million. A total of €304 million was repaid to Enterprise Ireland during that same period. The residual value as of December 2022, and this is an estimate because we have not done the final figures in terms of what we get from the seed and venture funds, was €306 million. Of a €361 million investment, €304 million has already been paid back to Enterprise Ireland and in turn to the State and there is a residual value of €306 million. This has happened over the past ten years. It is important to look at it over a long period as opposed to what happens over a short period. Certainly we are seeing in the marketplace that valuations in tech are down and the availability of capital at early stage, which is the stage at which Enterprise Ireland intervenes in particular, is more challenging. I think we will see more of that in the short term. For Enterprise Ireland, this is a key area in which it intervenes and encourages and supports other parties such as private investors.