Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

Following on from last evening's address to the House by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, I welcome this opportunity to reaffirm the excellent track record of county enterprise boards in fostering local entrepreneurial potential. Since their establishment in 1993, the enterprise boards have gone from strength to strength. They have never stagnated but have grown with their clientele and successfully adapted to the needs of their client base.

On the provision of financial assistance, there has been a gradual shift in emphasis from direct financial assistance towards increasing resort to repayable forms of assistance. The Department is satisfied that this form of finance meets the needs of the client companies of the county enterprise boards and allows for significantly more companies to benefit from the available funds. This must be a priority consideration in the current circumstances.

The county enterprise boards have deepened their role in promoting a culture of entrepreneurship in their respective localities. The provision of management capability training, direct mentoring and networked opportunities carries its own value and weight and has been a significant financial investment by the State in the micro-enterprise sector for the past 15 years.

I will comment briefly on the provision of financial assistance, an issue raised yesterday evening by Opposition Deputies. The total budget available for the county enterprise board network in 2008 is more than €34 million, of which €20 million is available for capital expenditure alone. The allocation of individual budgets to the 35 county and enterprise boards is carried out by the county enterprise boards central co-ordination unit, known as the CCU. This unit was established in Enterprise Ireland to carry out a number of functions in relation to the boards which had previously been undertaken by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Such functions include the allocation of budgets to individual boards for the year and the effective management of available resources to the county enterprise board network to maximise sustainable development in the micro-enterprise sector.

In determining the 2008 allocations for individual boards, the CCU adopted a systemic approach to ensure the maximum degree of objectivity and equity of treatment. It is a matter for individual boards to determine how they will use allocated funds as well as the own income funds available to them from repayable grants in the most effective manner possible. Some boards may choose to commit all their available funding as projects present themselves, even if this means their funding is exhausted relatively early in the year, while others may choose to reserve some funding until later in the year in order that they are in a position to support other high quality projects that emerge at that time. This would explain why some boards may have utilised their funding earlier in the year than other boards. As part of the normal yearly budgetary cycle, some boards will request additional funding to support a variety of expenditures beyond their original allocations. Such requests are made by boards in the knowledge that these requests can only be considered should additional funding become available.

As part of the CCU's ongoing management of available funding for 2008, the unit has already conducted a review of CEB spending in August. This exercise has in the past been carried out in September-October and it has generally been the case that a number of boards are not in a position to spend all their annual allocations. Accordingly, where surplus funding became available, it was reallocated to any boards in a position to spend additional funds, subject to thorough assessment of the rationale and justification for the level of funding being requested.

Following an exercise carried out in August, no county enterprise board was at that time in a position to surrender money, while 13 of the 35 CEBs located around the country indicated to the CCU that they could utilise additional capital funding. A further such trawl of the boards will take place shortly after which some boards may be able to surrender money in respect of grant allocations. Any such surrenders would be available to redistribute to other boards.

On foot of the August exercise, my Department has made available additional capital finance of €500,000 for use by boards for direct grant aid to enterprises. This was originally allocated to the CEBs to part fund another specific initiative for which the full allocation is not now required. In addition to the annual budget allocation to each board, including the €500,000 allocation I mentioned, boards also have access to significant moneys from repaid grants which they can recycle to provide further grants to eligible clients.

It should be stressed that it is a basic expectation of boards that they will manage the delivery of their support programmes on the basis of their allocated amount over the year as a whole. As with all State-funded assistance, boards are expected to prioritise and manage available funding in a targeted and effective manner.

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