Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Government's amendment to the Fine Gael motion. I listened with interest to speakers on both sides of the debate. There is a general consensus across the floor that small and medium enterprises are the cornerstone of our economy and if we do not protect the cornerstone, the whole thing will collapse. We must support small and medium enterprises if we are to get out of the current economic crisis.

In the spirit of the cross-party consensus I hope will build up, I recognise Deputy Perry's own experience of small business from his various businesses in south Sligo, which is from where my wife comes. He certainly has a knowledge of small business and I pay tribute to Fine Gael for not using the usual language to slam the Government in the motion. At the same time, I would suggest that some things are going right, particularly exports. The economy will probably have overall growth this year and it is important to recognise that. While it is certainly the duty of the Opposition to oppose and criticise, it would be helpful if it recognised the export performance of the country and the increase in foreign direct investment. My hope is that the more foreign direct investment into this country, the more products they need from small and medium indigenous companies here, and that a knock-on effect can be created.

The Government is providing concrete measures to support the small and medium enterprise sector. I want to look at the city and county enterprise boards throughout the country and in particular, the board in Meath which does much work in assisting members of the public and potential business people in my own county with jobs and training. A further €3.3 million in funding was announced last week for county enterprise boards. This relatively small amount of funding has the capacity to create more than 450 jobs in small firms, which highlights the importance of a good capital budget in creating jobs. The money will be used to help people set up new businesses, support entrepreneurial spirit and to help local communities through job creation. The Government has provided €18 million to county enterprise boards, helping smaller businesses in 2010.

Meath County Enterprise Board is doing tremendous work. For the year up to September 2010, it has approved 19 projects with a potential of 42 jobs, which is an average cost of €7,000 per job. It paid out €106,000 for another 18 projects that created 27 full-time jobs at an average cost of just under €4,000 per job. A total of 457 people have completed training or are on training courses with the Meath County Enterprise Board this year. The number is divided fairly evenly between men and women and I would like to pay tribute to our female entrepreneurs in my constituency, and throughout the country as well. Out of that figure of 457, 184 received "start your own business" training. It created many jobs in the county even though it is a relatively small operation. The county enterprise board is working with neighbouring boards in Kildare and Fingal on training and support for former SR Technics employees. That is a big issue for my constituency, with Dublin Airport being so close.

The county enterprise board employs only the equivalent of four and a half full-time staff, so it does a great amount of work with such a small number of staff. I pay tribute to it. It is another reminder of the work the Government is doing and which is being delivered on the ground to support job creation.

See this speech in context