Mr. John O'Connor:

I have been a centre manager for 23 years and have applied for different funding over the years. As Mr. O'Meara said, these ones were easier. One got one's capital grant plus an employment grant to help in operations. I did not go near the grant referred to by Ms Finn because it did not make sense to me. It was not worth the effort one would put into it. We in enterprise centres provide a lot more than just space. If a retailer wanted advice, they ring me in Gorey or Enniscorthy and we provide that support because the LEOs cannot do it, Enterprise Ireland cannot do it and IDA Ireland will not do it. Our only source of income is rent. If we were to rent the whole of the Hatch Lab, it would be 100 years before we would reclaim the price of the building. Our rent roll is only a percentage of what we need to survive. We have to go hunting grants and other facilities to keep the door open. For a lot of enterprise centres, this grant was not worth looking at. I am guessing that the ones that did apply are the new centres, which are being set up to fail because of 15 centre managers, one applied for the REDF fund. I have been in the sector a long time and have seen these people come and go. I feel sorry for them sometimes because the economies of scale are not in place when they apply for these funds.