Mr. Frank Ryan:

Mr. Donnellan has already commented on our working relationship with the banks. I would like to add a further comment which I hope committee members will find helpful. We want our client companies to hang out with the best. It is as simple as that. We would like that to be the Irish banks but that is just because we are an Irish agency. If the funding is supplied by overseas banks, that is fine. For those of our client companies exporting to Brazil, Russia and China, the overseas banks, which have a good contact network in these areas, supply more than finance. They supply strong sectoral and market knowledge of areas, including on what a contract in the United Arab Emirates means, because it means something different in Saudi Arabia. We want that type of input for our clients. We are agnostic as regards where that comes from. We try to be commercial in that type of situation. The Irish banks are in competition with overseas banks in relation to meeting the needs of our clients.

Since its establishment Enterprise Ireland has invested in approximately 700 to 800 high potential start-up, HPSU, companies. On an annual basis, approximately 450 innovators and promoters bring their projects to us. We select the best of those, who then receive special attention, including special training programmes for their management teams and so on, to bring them to what we term "scaling companies". In other words, companies that can reach at least €5 million in turnover within a five to seven year period. A full commercial evaluation of each project is undertaken. We invest, with others, in these high potential start-ups. As such, we are not investing on our own. These companies usually raise funds from family and friends, through the seed venture capital fund or venture capital industry. Our funds are matched by other funding. We have found it useful to have several sets of eyes on the business opportunities being presented.

We have in our own way addressed the issue of overhanging debt, on which I will ask Mr. Donnellan to comment.