Mr. John Murphy:

On the question of venture capital, there are a number of national and EU instruments. At a very strategic level there is a significant difference between the way new enterprises are financed in Europe compared to the United States, for example. In the United States, while bank funding is important at early stages in businesses, non-bank financing, venture capital equity, for example, provides a much higher proportion of enterprise funding and is a very definite engine of growth. Bank financing everywhere tends to be risk-averse. What we have been looking to do both in Ireland - because of our particular circumstances with our banks - but also more broadly at European level, between ourselves and our colleagues in the Department of Finance, is to look at ways in which European financial instruments can support more non-bank financing as well as putting in place guarantee measures and other measures that will facilitate more bank financing, particularly for SMEs. The capital was increased by €10 billion and part of that is designed to increase the level of venture capital funding. We already have a range of programmes and Enterprise Ireland is directly involved in many of these. The State puts some money up and issues calls for the private sector to put up money and investments can then be made in the new businesses or in the expansion of existing businesses. If the Deputy requires further information I will be happy to provide it.