Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy has raised a number of interesting issues with which I wish to deal. One concerns the county and city enterprise boards and funding thereof. When I came into this office I asked Enterprise Ireland to undertake a trawl of the enterprise boards to ascertain precisely which projects were on hand, which projects were approved, and what was the requirement in terms of money. After an initial response from 28 of the 35 boards we have since had a full complement of replies and now know exactly what jobs are approved and how much money is required.

In line with my commitment to enterprise, I will be making an announcement in the very near future indicating clearly that I will make funding available for those jobs to be created. Before that, however, I will take the opportunity to inform each of the city and county enterprise boards individually. It is important that we support these bodies which do a valuable job in communities, encourage community enterprise-----

See this speech in context