Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that crowd-funding is an interesting area. I am aware of one such initiative in Ireland and recently met with the sponsors of it. It is beginning to have a track record. What I found interesting was that much of the funding came from the local customer base rather than from remote locations. As such, a community of interest was built around a business so that people were not only using it but were investing in it. I will look at how the Government can better support this idea. It can form part of the picture which, as Deputy Calleary rightly said, will be a mosaic. Banks internationally and globally are retreating from some areas. Our dependence on banks as a source of funding is pretty high. We need to construct a mosaic of sources of funding. I am aware that there are a number of the initiatives referred to in the field and that they have the potential to grow further. We have not reached any conclusions in terms of access to finance. The suggested area is one that we can develop. The Government is open to credible suggestions from Deputies on this issue. As stated by Deputy Perry, the establishment of the local enterprise offices as one-stop-shops will provide us with a better window on the needs of these companies. We have created a centre of excellence in Enterprise Ireland. It is a two-way process and it is hoped we will get better intelligence to mould effective policy instruments.

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