John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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From this Department’s Vote. We expect the grants in 2014 to be €18.5 million. We spent €18.18 million in 2013. It is totally ring-fenced within this budget and the service level agreement. We hope to complement enterprise promotional activities by local government. There are many other schemes that will complement it. We hope that the activation of the micro-finance fund, about which the Minister will speak, will be far greater through the local enterprise offices. One will not need a refusal from the bank to apply. I have spoken to several county enterprise boards and they welcome this additional source of funding, joint funding by the State to start a business.