Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Nurturing social enterprise and commercial enterprise at local level is vital. Much of what county enterprise boards and Enterprise Ireland do is demand-led. We must nurture but we must also see them come forward with proposals. There is a strong regional mandate of Enterprise Ireland to nurture businesses. In the south east, we put in extra resources to create a better seedbed for enterprises to grow and come forward. The IDA is a different issue but we can build up both, so that there are standards and benchmarks of expectation. Mentoring must come to a certain standard and the way companies are dealt with must increase to a certain standard. That will be built into the service level agreement between Enterprise Ireland and the local office. We also seek to engage local authorities in creating the environment in which businesses can thrive. It is a two-way process. We create incentives at both ends and we hope this is what will drive the matter.

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