Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State has made my point for me. In some cases Enterprise Ireland makes it a condition of its assistance that a company must first secure venture capital. It should be the other way around, and that is a simple matter to review. Second, the Minister of State said that the report of the innovation task force is due in a month. There is no room for delay in terms of action; we have already lost out on opportunities for job creation.

The reality is that this problem is unique to Ireland as a small market seeking investment by venture capitalists. As I said, there are 12 funds and the best prospects are being cherry-picked while many others miss out. Will the Department seek to discover from Enterprise Ireland and other bodies the names of companies that were refused assistance? This problem also applies in regard to enterprise boards. It is all very well to talk about how successful we are in offering support to business, but what about the companies we have been unable to help? We have a duty to help people who are coming forward with new ideas and to encourage them to take risks. The Government must find ways of matching that investment, through the business expansion scheme and by facilitating venture capital investment specifically for the early stage development of products. That is where the problem lies and time is of the essence in tackling it.

See this speech in context