John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)

On that point, I draw the Deputy's attention to the level of soft supports given by enterprise boards. It is all about business plans and the formulation of them. The boards are certain that funding is only one part of the success of any company. The formulation of the business plan, meeting an enterprise officer, getting the mentoring support and the initial allocation of funding are important aspects. There are many ways to securing funding be it through the credit unions or the local banks. Clearly, the banks are now beginning to have a focus on small enterprise. The figures I have indicate that all the funding allocated has not been spent by the enterprise boards to date. That is a fact. They can carry forward unspent funds in their allocations to next year.

If the Deputy wants to forward me details of a particular case, I will be happy to examine it. The central co-ordination unit operated by Enterprise Ireland closely monitoring the allocation of funding and it has carried out a review. It has been effective and increased funding in the last allocation to enterprise boards. What is involved is not only about giving money, although it is a help. It is the level of the formulation of a business plan, which in many cases can be the difficulty in a business surviving, especially if it does not have the necessary feasibility study carried out and the concept of the business plan thought out. What is involved is not the matter of putting money into a business that is not viable - the viability of the project must be assured. It is not about giving out handy money to assure an entrepreneur that the level of support will meet the needs and survival of the project. It is about the overall due diligence required on the application. The Deputy can rest assured that within the Department such money is still available and can be reallocated from one country to another if the need arises.

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