Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not doubt Enterprise Ireland’s track record. It is superb. Microfinance Ireland, MFI, attended the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation a few weeks ago. Every Member should look at the presentation it gave and the information it has for companies. It has a difficulty in terms of getting its message out. I suggested to the Minister previously that it would use the Revenue database as it has the best database for business in the country for whatever reason. The database must be used to get information. What happens in the case of companies that are not in one of the growth areas?

That is the difficulty. There are many solid companies trading in the domestic market that do not fit into the areas for which the measures are being announced and they cannot get finance. They are the respondents to the ISME survey who still, in September 2013, five years into the crisis, cannot get credit for viable businesses. As well as focusing on the sexy, gazelle type companies, we need to focus our efforts on the day to day companies that employ people and keep their local economies going. They need help too.

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