Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Deputy Murphy asked several questions. Yes, there are targets. The figures I quoted of 22,000 jobs per annum and 110,000 jobs by 2016 are targets set by IDA and Enterprise Ireland and those targets have sectoral elements within them. I can provide those figures to the Deputy. The Deputy is right to say there have been reduced capital allocations. However, the enterprise area has been protected from such reductions and these targets are robust. We have provided money to underpin them and even to provide for some more initiatives aimed at small businesses, such as the partial loan guarantee, the micro-finance initiative and others.

There is not an undue emphasis on IDA versus indigenous companies. Looking to the long term, we clearly need to have more growth from the indigenous side. At present, it is about 12,000 jobs from the IDA and 10,000 from indigenous exporters. We need to see the indigenous element of that grow stronger. Many of the measures I will develop in the jobs strategy will be aimed at getting more people, whether Irish or overseas people, to start businesses. For example, I recently announced a €10 million fund to encourage foreign people to start businesses in Ireland, which is a real area of opportunity.

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