John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

It may bore him somewhat that I must return to the sections of the Bill but if he waits he will find that interesting too. The comment that all of the debate came from the other side of the House was not exactly accurate. There were several contributions from this side as there were from the Opposition, expressing the same level of interest.

In respect of section 3, I too support the Oireachtas committee system. It is a great place to scrutinise legislation in detail and to deal with annual reports on money granted and spent under legislation passed, and the records of Enterprise Ireland, the county enterprise boards, my Department and other Departments. Maybe it should be used much more in respect of this type of legislation. There is oversight and scrutiny. I was a member of the Committee on Public Accounts under the chairmanship of Deputy Noonan. It is extremely important to take time at that level to scrutinise every aspect of a Department's expenditure. Those checks and balances exist in the committee system. It is a matter for us to use it.

The Shannon development agency exists for grant purposes, to manage tourism-related property and so on. Mr. Martin Cronin, the chief executive of Forfás, is a member of, and available to, the task force to which he responds on behalf of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Science Foundation of Ireland and FÁS. He has an input relevant to these bodies and feeds information to them from the task force. I hope that functions well.

I was asked about proof of job creation and maintenance by county enterprise boards and Enterprise Ireland. I was a member of a county enterprise board since they were first set up by former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. This week in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown we recalled that over that 15-year period the board supported 800 projects with €7.6 million in grants, creating almost 1,000 jobs. The same can be said of enterprise boards in my constituency and elsewhere. That is relevant for the micro and SME sector. They have expanded their activities to provide mentors and courses for upskilling management and staff. They engage constantly with chambers of commerce and other business agencies or representative groups. They are a positive feature of any local economy. Enterprise Ireland's remit takes in the county enterprise boards. There is now a seamless transfer of companies through that system right up to Enterprise Ireland level. A company can achieve this, as was demonstrated recently in a presentation by 71 high-potential start-up companies. The majority had come through the county enterprise board system and ended up as high-potential start-up companies. They launched their products and services recently at an exhibition attended by banks and other investors interested in supporting such companies. Enterprise Ireland invested approximately €22 million over the range of companies taking part and, on top of that, €169 million was leveraged. There is potential within the 71 companies to create 1,000 jobs over the next three years.

That is a measure of the activity of enterprise boards and Enterprise Ireland in this area. This story is told, not by politicians or Ministers, but by the market and by business people who, unlike many in this House, must put their money where their mouth is. They have to stand up every day and take on the banks in the current environment, as was mentioned in the debate. They must go to foreign places to create that marketplace, and access to it, in order to sustain jobs at home. There is a successful side to the economy and what is going on, even now. This is relevant to research and development and to job creation but is particularly relevant to the successful story that Enterprise Ireland and the county enterprise boards can tell.

Foreign direct investment was mentioned, as was the notion that the indigenous sector is weak. The indigenous sector has created approximately 800,000 jobs. If one includes Enterprise Ireland and foreign direct investment, each body has created almost 150,000 jobs. That is a good representation of the jobs being created by all those bodies. Each one makes an effort and I believe they give value for money. They give Ireland international representation and they create those jobs in a very confident way, bringing other jobs back to Ireland by way of foreign direct investment. They sustain and create such jobs through Enterprise Ireland and its activities. There is a lot going on and a strong engagement with Enterprise Ireland and the enterprise boards is required to understand that success story. Let us not lose that story in the course of this debate, while acknowledging these are challenging times.

Deputy Mary O'Rourke and others made points about the banks. I spoke about this matter in the Chamber yesterday during another debate We recapitalised the banks and they tell us they will make €100 million available for enterprise and to create seed capital funds and so on. We have oversight now in that we can look into the banks and see exactly what are their lending criteria. Many more millions of euro have been made available through the European Investment Bank and are now included. Money should be made available to the micro and small and medium-sized enterprise sectors in this country to encourage them to do business and to bridge the gap between these very difficult circumstances and the success that can follow after this downturn begins to pick up. We can play a role in the global market.

This message clearly has to go to the banks. I do not mind saying this, either as a politician or in my role in business. Strong evidence has been given in this House and outside that banks are not lending freely. We do not want them lending as freely as they did hitherto but within normal banking criteria. They are not lending as they should to the business sector. As Government, we must say to them that we want a clear line of action between the banks and the SME sector and business. We want them to ensure that businesses are able to continue and to create jobs while sustaining their current jobs. The group formed to examine the banks' lending criteria must take a firm hand. The banks are not lending the way they should. I have plenty of evidence of this from my business, from other business people and from stories that have been told in this House. We must continue to put pressure on the banks to ensure they deliver in a sensible way to sustainable businesses. These must not be locked out and when businesses approach banks for loans or new facilities we must ensure they do not walk out without the new facilities but with increased interest rates and bank charges.

I agree with the former chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, Deputy Michael Noonan, and with Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, who made very worthy suggestions about kickstarting various sectors of the economy. I made the same point as Deputy O'Dowd with regard to local authority charges and fees. We need to examine them. Each political party in this House must talk to its representatives on local authorities and we must again consider a radical overhaul of the funding of local authorities. I have no difficulty with that. That is what we should be doing. As businesses continue to reinvent themselves quickly to catch up with the market and play their role there, Government, in turn, must make similar decisions to support that course of action. Like businesses, it must make decisions in real time. That is a challenge for Government. Governments do not operate that way. They usually chase the problem and then try to deal with it.

That is the radical shift we need to see here, just like the one we should see in the debates in this House, namely, acknowledging what is said by opposing parties. I did this last night in response to Deputy Coveney. A contribution can be made in that way. I am thankful for the Opposition's support for this Bill which will shift it through the House and through Committee Stage. Our new approach will benefit the work of Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and the other agencies.

Deputy Mitchell spoke of tourism and adding value to it. I was at an exhibition in Scotland recently that was visited by 37,000 people in one day. The challenge for us in this part of the country is to encourage an all-island approach. When Tourism Ireland or Enterprise Ireland take that approach — in Enterprise Ireland's case working with companies from Northern Ireland — there is an added curiosity abroad about what we are doing here. There is greater support for the package of companies we have on offer and for their services and products abroad. There is an almost immediate forthcoming in terms of support and purchasing. We must trade more on this factor.

Deputy Rabbitte asked some specific questions. The €1 billion I mentioned refers to the 2008 export performance as against the 2007 performance. He spoke about research and development and the commercialisation that arises from that. This week I launched a guide to good practice in innovation and product development processes which describes what commercialisation is about. We must explain what we do with research and development, how we commercialise our product or service and how it is funded to get to the marketplace. There is a need for support in research and development but also in commercialisation. The latter involves internationalising a company in order to sell its product abroad. That means the high-potential start-up and all it entails. The document I launched explains this. I hope it will encourage Government to continue funding not only research and development but all the steps required afterwards to bring a product to the marketplace and make it happen for the company involved.

Deputy Rabbitte also asked about the figure of 2 million persons at work, to which I referred. That is the latest figure. The next figure might be short of 2 million but whether it is above or below that line it is a hell of a lot different from the 1.1 million it was some time ago. We are starting from a different base. I offer that information as answer to his question. The article on commercialisation in The Irish Times concerns the same issue and the same answer applies.

Deputy Morgan mentioned the use of embassies abroad. The greatest success Enterprise Ireland meets abroad is when the embassy and the agency offices work together. I saw this done in Russia and one sees it constantly in London across the sectors. The embassy staff are involved and the embassy building is used. Business people are there working on behalf of, and for, Ireland abroad, attracting new markets. That work goes on constantly within Enterprise Ireland on their trade missions abroad.

In answer to Deputy Morgan's question regarding interpreters and assistance for companies in accessing markets, Enterprise Ireland and the IDA maintain a number of offices throughout the world which can offer these services. They offer particular assistance to companies wishing to enter difficult markets. The most recent example of this is Enterprise Ireland's first toe into the Latin American market, which helped Irish companies to win orders worth €25 million. We expect to build our way into these markets from this base. Irish food companies such as Glanbia and the Kerry Group are operating very successfully and employ some 5,000 people in the region. The accumulated value of goods and services sold in Japan during this period was €60 million. There is huge potential to internationalise relevant research and development conducted in Ireland in the area of food, technology and farming. We can also attract companies back to Ireland as foreign direct investors because we are seen as an innovative, creative and enterprising nation.

Further collaboration is needed between Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and academia. We must persuade large and small companies to engage with third level students so that they understand what is required by the market and can thereby meet their educational and employment needs. County enterprise boards are expanding that engagement to secondary level and I would like to see a similar engagement at primary level because otherwise we will not serve the next generation well in terms of building a knowledge economy.

I look forward to discussing the Bill further on Committee Stage and thank Deputies for their contributions.

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