Mr. Kevin Sherry:

Basically, what we do for early-stage companies is work with them to help them develop a business plan. When they get to the stage of having a business plan together and are ready to start, we will assess it from a financial and commercial due diligence point of view. In many cases, we will also undertake a technical due diligence because quite often these are technology-based companies. Based on that, we will agree an investment in those companies. Enterprise Ireland has a policy of not taking more than a 10% ordinary shareholding in the company. We use that as a lever to encourage and support external investors to put capital into the company. The focus for Enterprise Ireland, and the reason we put in money is not for the financial return, but for the jobs and value added these companies create in Ireland. We work closely with those companies as they implement those plans.