Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I will begin with Senator Averil Power's question regarding the committee on social enterprise that is operating under the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

As the Senator correctly pointed out, the Minister of State for research and innovation, Deputy Sherlock, has assumed responsibility for this area. He chairs an interdepartmental group which was first convened in October and which has met on three occasions since then. At the first meeting of the group, Forfás made a presentation in which it set out the actions it felt were required. The same actions are set out in our report and we have just outlined them for this committee. I understand the interdepartmental group is developing implementation and prioritisation mechanisms in respect of those actions. It is also engaged with the sector in this regard.

On the extent to which this area is included within business courses, we consulted a number of educational institutions while the study was being compiled. As a result, we are aware that UCC has a centre for co-operative studies and that DCU, TCD - to which the Senator referred - and UCD run some courses in this area. These courses tend to be specifically related to the not-for-profit sector. One of the points we make in our report is that it needs to be mainstreamed within other business programmes so that a wider audience can be reached. There are other ways for business graduates to achieve exposure to and experience in this area. The sector would benefit from the entry to it of such graduates, whether on a voluntary basis or through some of the schemes that exist within the public sector.

Deputy Joan Collins referred to our intention to create up to 5,000 jobs. To clarify, Forfás's role is to advise on areas of opportunity and indicate what should be done. A number of Departments have direct responsibility in this area and they form the membership of the interdepartmental group to which I referred earlier. I refer here to the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Environment, Community and Local Government - which plays quite a significant role - Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Health and Social Protection. All of these Departments run schemes which support and interact with the sector in different ways. The potential for creating 25,000 jobs was identified by examining what is happening and the levels of social enterprise that have been achieved in other countries. The average percentage of GDP in countries across Europe that is accounted for by social enterprise currently stands at 6%. The EU has set a target of 9% in this regard. If we were to achieve a figure of the order of 6%, employment in the sector would increase. In fact, it would more than double. We suggest that achieving what other countries are achieving is a reasonable target. Spain, Italy and Scotland - which was mentioned in the context of the other presentation - are good examples in this regard.

The areas in which these jobs may be created vary greatly. The one thing about social enterprise is that it is both varied and widely dispersed. It is not concentrated around large urban areas and much of it is rural-based. We are talking here about everything from community shops to post offices, tourism and heritage products, leisure and sports services, energy production, etc. We have included a number of case studies in our report which provide a flavour of some of the more significant types of social enterprise involved. We see jobs being created both through growth in these enterprises and through the arrival of new ones.