John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I am particularly familiar with the county enterprise boards and the impact they have on local economies. The range of services they provide, including mentoring, education and training, and their co-operation with the chambers of commerce and so on should be encouraged. As I said, in the context of the current economic climate, we will look at submissions coming in from county enterprise boards in regard to the range of services and finance they offer. Their link to Enterprise Ireland strengthens their position as a player in the economy.

Within the county enterprise board structure, we are looking at the high potential start-ups which will give us the core number of companies required to improve our export targets. The county enterprise boards and the small and medium sized businesses generally are now centre stage. This is the focus of the work in the Department. The Minister, when allocating functions to the Ministers of State, asked me to specifically look at county enterprise boards. Drawing from my knowledge of the boards and my background in business I intend to encourage them to work more and more to maintain and sustain jobs and to link to Enterprise Ireland, which is doing a significant job abroad. On a recent trade mission to Mexico and Brazil, Irish companies notched up contracts worth in the region of €15 million, which is significant in the context of sustaining jobs at home. Enterprise Ireland will continue this work and create the focus and potential for the small business sector which relies on county enterprise boards and their direction.

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