Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Financial Statements of Enterprise Ireland: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Leo Clancy:

We have been engaged with this since the first wobbles in the tech sector about a year ago. We have been engaged with our clients. As I mentioned to Deputy O'Connor, we have a set of development advisers who work with the companies on a day-to-day basis, so they are on the pulse of what is happening with the companies. Our investment goes in, but then we continue to work with the companies through their life cycles. Effectively, it comes back to our approach with any company. We look at companies and try to help them to innovate, to be more productive and to apply digital in order to make sure their business models are sustainability-oriented. All those things are to get them ready to compete in global markets. I think the best support we can give to companies is to make sure they are match-fit for the markets into which they are trying to trade and doing very well. We provide a whole range of supports to companies in that regard.

Protecting against global factors is always difficult in Ireland. We are a small, globally exposed economy. We need to be very conscious of that. That said, I think-----