Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that, over the last 25 years, there has been a transformation of attitudes to entrepreneurial endeavour. Many more people today will contemplate establishing a company compared to a generation ago. City and county enterprise boards have played a significant role in encouraging, influencing and supporting people to take that step to set up their own businesses. Small to medium-sized companies are the backbone of the economy, so I wish to ask the Tánaiste two questions. I know the Government is proposing to get rid of the enterprise boards, so when is the county enterprise boards (dissolution) Bill expected to come before the House?

The Government talks about creating jobs, but no one can understand why thousands of jobs are being held up because of the decision to freeze funding that has already been allocated to a multitude of projects across the country under the aegis of Leader and partnership groups. Perhaps the Tánaiste can indicate when the relevant legislation will come before the House because it is tied up with the Leader programme being subsumed into the county councils. When will that funding be released?

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