Ms Julie Sinnamon:

I thank the Vice Chairman and members for the opportunity to attend this afternoon. I am joined by Mr. Niall O'Donnellan, head of policy and investment services, and Mr. Tom Hayes, head of microenterprise and small business. I propose to take the members through the key achievements of 2013 and initiatives under way for 2014. Then my colleagues and I will respond to questions.

Enterprise Ireland's main objective is to grow jobs in Irish companies. For companies to grow their employment, they need to grow their sales. Export growth provides a sustainable growth route, and if companies want to win sales overseas, it will drive growth in Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland works in partnership with its clients, providing a cohesive set of supports, both financial and non-financial, to help them start, grow, innovate and compete in global markets. The ultimate goal is driving economic growth and employment creation. I acknowledge, in particular, the support of our parent Department, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, in this context.

Enterprise Ireland client companies continue to generate increased jobs growth, recording the highest overall net rise in employment levels in the past decade, with 5,442 net new jobs at the end of 2013. Moreover, they provide employment for 175,750 people, comprising 149,718 full-time and 26,032 part-time workers. Irish-owned firms, in terms of payroll and purchases of materials and services produced in Ireland, accounted for €20.28 billion in expenditure in the Irish economy in 2013. As a result, the companies supported by Enterprise Ireland are supporting and sustaining more than 300,000 jobs directly and indirectly throughout the country.

The outlook for new job creation in 2014 is positive, with employment growth returning to the economy and unemployment steadily declining month on month. There remains a considerable task to create the jobs necessary for our economy, but the outlook for our companies and their job creation plans is at its most positive since the recession took hold.

In terms of driving export growth in our client companies, Enterprise Ireland understands that, in a small economy, exports sustain and create jobs. With total exports exceeding €17 billion in 2013, Enterprise Ireland's clients exported more than at any time in the history of the State. Responding to evolving market opportunities for our clients, the Government approved the recruitment of 20 additional staff in high-growth markets. In September, we announced the opening of two new offices, one in Istanbul, Turkey, and a second in Austin, Texas. In tandem with the development of our network, the number of ministerially led trade missions co-ordinated by Enterprise Ireland has more than doubled in the past two years from eight in 2011 to 16 in 2012 and 18 in 2013, with an extensive programme designed to build on export growth in markets where Irish companies are strong and to open doors in new, high-growth markets.

A series of major trade missions have already been completed for 2014. For example, earlier this year Enterprise Ireland organised a mission led by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, as part of a five-year strategy targeting €1 billion in exports to the Gulf. An important support for Enterprise Ireland is the embassy network across the globe. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Export Trade Council, on which Enterprise Ireland is represented, are key stakeholders in the national drive to increase trade.

During 2013, Enterprise Ireland continued working to increase the number of companies starting up, expanding, exporting and creating jobs. In 2013, we approved support for 104 high-potential start-ups, HPSUs, the most in any single year. Last year also saw a significant increase in female-led projects, with the highest ever level of new investments by Enterprise Ireland in start-ups led by female promoters. Some 41 projects led by women won investments during the year, 14 of which were HPSUs, with the balance supported through the competitive start fund.

Community enterprise centres, CECs, provide a range of facilities that enable entrepreneurs to establish new businesses. A total of 157 centres have been approved for financial support, of which 117 have been completed and are operational. Some 9,300 jobs have been created by companies in CECs in the past decade.

Following on from the Government's decision to restructure the microenterprise and small business support system, the dissolution of the 35 county and city enterprise boards, CEBs, and the establishment of local enterprise offices, LEOs, formally took place in April of this year. The LEOs are now operational across the country, enhancing the availability of supports to entrepreneurs and micro and small businesses. Enterprise Ireland is working through its centre of excellence to support the LEOs and to ensure that the best available services and supports are available to anyone thinking of starting or expanding a business.

In May, we launched a new €500,000 Enterprise Ireland competitive start fund targeted at stimulating new start-ups by graduates. This fund will help start-up and early stage companies to get off the ground and launch new products and services in the international marketplace. The fund will close for applications on Wednesday of next week.

As well as providing tailored support in creating and implementing plans, our capability and mentoring department has developed a number of flagship programmes focused on supporting leadership and management development and building international sales and marketing capabilities in Irish companies. Some 240 executives from client companies participated in significant management development programmes, while 845 executives took part in short programmes, both exceeding targets for 2013. In 2014, we have been developing our approach to peer-to-peer learning and reaching more companies with our learning initiatives.

Enterprise Ireland recognises that our clients must be competitive in order to succeed in international markets. Enterprise Ireland's lean business offer encourages client companies to adopt lean principles and build the capabilities and capacities of their people. A total of 143 lean projects were supported during 2013, comprising 80 LeanStarts, 43 LeanPlus assignments and 20 LeanTransform projects. Clients of all sizes and sectors were involved in these programmes. This has been a core business offer for Enterprise Ireland to help companies to address their competitiveness challenges. To date in 2014, we have supported 47 companies.

Enterprise Ireland offers a range of financial supports to assist clients through all stages of the business cycle. The nature and level of support offered will depend on each individual company's developmental needs and is assessed in consultation with the company's development adviser. Through Enterprise Ireland, the State has invested heavily in stimulating and facilitating the availability of seed and venture capital to provide access to finance for small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs. In 2013, the fourth seed and venture capital scheme, valued at €175 million, was launched. This scheme is aimed at providing additional funding for high-growth Irish companies with the potential to generate large amounts of additional export sales and grow jobs. It targets an additional €525 million in funding from the private sector, bringing the total to €700 million.

Among the major developments in 2014, Lightstone Ventures partnered with Enterprise Ireland and the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, to establish a fund worth $172 million. As a result, new funding will be available for the life sciences sector to support company development and job creation.

Enterprise Ireland's role in Ireland's research and technology landscape is centrally focused on empowering Irish companies to create high-value and innovative products for international markets. The office of science, technology and innovation in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation plays a central role, co-ordinating research and development supports. In total, 858 of Enterprise Ireland's clients were engaged in significant research and development projects of above €100,000 spend in 2013. Some 139 spent more than €1 million.

In order to promote business innovation with the ultimate aim of creating jobs, Enterprise Ireland also works with the broader enterprise base, including multinationals and the research community. The technology centre programme that Enterprise Ireland runs jointly with IDA Ireland brings consortia of indigenous firms and multinational companies together with academia to tackle problems. In so doing, the centres represent the best of Irish indigenous and multinational companies' researchers working together to solve issues that are too big or costly to be solved by any one company working in isolation.

During the year, two new technology centres were approved, those being, the technology centre for data analytics, CeADAR, in UCD and the centre for pharmaceutical manufacturing based in Limerick. These enhance manufacturing competitiveness and support the research and development mandate of the Irish sites within multinational corporations. We also funded a second phase of Food for Health Ireland, FHI, which is helping to mine milk to identify novel ingredients. This year has seen the launch of the new Horizon 2020 framework programme, which will represent a key source of research funding over the next seven years.

Enterprise Ireland continuously drives the commercial return on the State's investment by providing direct funding to researchers to commercialise their work. Enterprise Ireland has taken the lead in driving the commercial return from research by building the technology transfer infrastructure within the universities, where dedicated technology transfer offices have been established. Commercially relevant research centres have also been established in institutes of technology and campus incubation facilities have been put in place to support new technology companies.

May 2014 saw the launch of Knowledge Transfer Ireland, which is aimed at making it easier to commercialise ideas from State-funded research. The purpose of this new resource is to make it easier to commercialise, and create viable businesses and jobs from, State-funded research from all third level institutes. Knowledge Transfer Ireland is the first resource of its kind in Europe, operating as the State-funded central technology transfer office, which is located in Enterprise Ireland, and operating collaboratively by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Universities Association. The key service offered is a web portal that enables companies to identify experts, research centres and technology licensing opportunities to benefit their business.

Enterprise Ireland continues to be centrally involved in the Action Plan for Jobs, with a significant element of the plan falling to us for implementation. Enterprise Ireland has responsibility for 77 actions, equating to 96 deliverables, and contributes to a further 34 actions.

On behalf of Enterprise Ireland, I thank the many Departments and agencies across the system, which are important in enabling Enterprise Ireland to do its work with Irish companies. Our client companies continue to make a substantial economic impact at a critical time in the State.

Enterprise Ireland is keenly focused on its ongoing mission to support companies and job creation and moves forward into the second half of 2014 with the objective of playing a central role in the full implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs and the rolling out of a new strategy for enterprise development later in the year. I thank the committee for its invitation to address it today.