Mr. Seán Coughlan:

In terms of what we need to do in order to enable the sector in Ireland, one of the best signposts in terms of what needs to happen, and I have touched on some of the components of that, is the Forfás report. Forfás was commissioned to publish a report on the potential for social enterprise in this country. That report was published in June of this year. I emphasise that we are very encouraged by the appointment of the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, to co-ordinate social enterprise across Government. The Forfás report contains a number of recommendations around leadership development, procurement, financing and funding, and policy development. Essentially, that is a blueprint for how this sector can be developed and reach its potential in Ireland.

We are asking the Government to act as soon as it can to implement the report's recommendations.

In terms of European funding, the social business initiative launched by the EU two years ago is specifically tasked with encouraging social entrepreneurship and social enterprise across the Union. Its remit extends to the end of this decade as part of the broad Europe 2020 strategy. The conference in Strasbourg that was mentioned several times during this session is being driven by the social business initiative. A fund of €90 million has been developed under the initiative for investment in social enterprise. In fact, that is a seed allocation, the intention being to leverage it tenfold using the European Investment Bank. In other words, we are potentially looking at a fund of €900 million for social enterprise projects. These moneys will be distributed to agencies which will then select local social enterprises in which to invest.

This initiative is indicative of the substantial commitment to social enterprise at EU level. I would strongly encourage both the Government and the committee to support it. An expert group has been established whose function is essentially to determine policy under the initiative. Its membership includes representatives of the sector, that is, individuals involved in social enterprises and in agencies that support social enterprise. Paul O'Sullivan, chief executive officer of Clann Credo, is the Irish representative. The expert group reserves a majority of its membership slots for nominees from member state Governments. To date, however, as far as I am aware, Ireland is not represented.