Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Support for micro-enterprise, small businesses and new start-ups is provided by my Department through the county and city enterprise boards and Enterprise Ireland.

I have made a capital allocation of €15 million available to the CEBs in 2011. The CEBs will prioritise and manage these funds in a targeted manner in order to maximise entrepreneurial development at local level.

Enterprise Ireland operates a range of entrepreneurship programmes that provide participants with the business skills, contacts, mentoring and support to potentially transform their innovative ideas or technologies into exporting businesses. Funding of over €213 million is available to Enterprise Ireland this year from my Department's Vote to support companies, including through research and development grants and collaboration with third level institutions.

Under the auspices of Enterprise Ireland, the Government has also invested significantly in the broader environment for business start-ups, including investment in incubators, seed and venture funds, angel networks and mentors.

Enterprise Ireland also provides support to community enterprise centres, CECs, and business innovation centres, BICs. These centres provide a range of facilities that enable entrepreneurs to establish new businesses, provide employment and grow their businesses locally.

There are currently 21 Enterprise Ireland supported campus incubation facilities and six specialist bio-incubation facilities in operation in Ireland. Approximately 240 new companies are based in these centres, employing in the region of 1,000 people. In addition, there are approximately 5,000 people employed in community enterprise centres throughout the country.

In regard to the availability of credit for small businesses, the Deputy will be aware that the Government has secured a commitment from the main lenders, AIB and Bank of Ireland, to make available at least €12 billion in total for new or increased credit facilities to SMEs over 2010 and 2011.

The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 sets out further actions which will be taken to improve supports for all businesses. These include: measures to cut costs to business in the areas of energy, waste, professional fees and property; the extension of the 15 day prompt payment rule beyond central Government Departments to the wider public sector; investigating the potential for using vacant or under-utilised property as incubation centres; and there is also a commitment to review the business expansion scheme.

My priority is to ensure that both the business environment in Ireland and the assistance available from the enterprise agencies continue to be supportive of enterprise and encourage growth in all areas of the economy.

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