Mr. Aebhric McGibney:

To echo what the Senator said, regarding management time to engagement, I have less direct experience with apprenticeships but when it is a targeted scheme, targeting is good from a Government spending point of view but it requires a level of administration and bureaucracy. The Minister's work group on the costs of doing business is looking at removing red tape. There is a general commitment at EU level and Irish level in the programme for Government to reduce the level of burden on SMEs and micro-businesses in particular. We could spend half of the sum of a grant for the employment and investment incentive scheme or the research and development tax credit on the accountant who needs to fill out the forms to get the benefit of the grant. It is targeted but the cost of administration by the company, let alone the State, is large for a lot of these schemes. I echo the Senator's sentiment regarding the challenges that companies face in just having the time to engage.