Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion

Mr. Leo Clancy:

Across our entire base, if Enterprise Ireland's client base is treated as a sector, we have been given a target of 35% by 2030 in respect of a reduction in our clients' emissions. That is probably our primary one. As I mentioned, we also have a target of 425 interventions with clients; we are at 201 at present. My earlier comment was that we do not yet have targets in respect of some of the things that Deputy Bruton mentioned around packaging and other matters.

However, we are examining all the areas we might have targets in. We will certainly be expanding the set but we are really focused on carbon. For the big one we are focused on, we have the experience and expertise available to us. We have a panel of 100 consultants who can help. They are all experts in assisting companies in their fields. Our big challenge at the moment is companies' engagement. This is not to blame businesses. They are busy. However, Brexit had an impending commercial consequence that was short term and could have happened at any time. As Deputy O'Reilly stated earlier, it really focused the minds. Decarbonisation and sustainability do not have the same immediacy. I worry about that for my children as well as for the country. It is a challenge we are focused on. It is our biggest focus at the moment. The Deputy's question was about how we can raise awareness and up our game around such things as marketing and communications. We will happily take advice from colleagues, Deputies and Senators on what we might do. We pushed hard recently on our green for micro programme. My colleague, Ms Toomey, worked hard on the Skillnet series that is coming up for sustainability leaders, which is a small group of companies. When we sat down to look at it we realised businesses are time poor. Three days spent with a consultant is an awful lot of time for a small business to commit to so we are starting with a half day course. At the end of that, we will know-----