Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need positive investment to compensate for the pull to the east and to population centres of inward investment. That is crucial.

Section 10 of the Bill will ensure that any loans or grants approved by existing county enterprise boards will be honoured by the new Enterprise Ireland umbrella. There need be no uncertainty or fear among existing clients of the enterprise boards. An implementation group comprising representatives of county enterprise boards, Enterprise Ireland and various Departments, founded in 2012, aims to tackle the administration side of the transfer and I am sure that the carryover of pre-approved grants will be dealt with here.

In a similar vein, I would argue that there is a need for a degree of flexibility in eligibility for supports, including financial. In that context, it should have the least bureaucratic obstacles to those trying to start up a business. Everything should be put in plain language. There should be support to access funds and simplify matters. It should not be an obstacle race. On the contrary, we should revel in and be proud of those who want to create an enterprise. We should applaud such persons, affirm them and give them the wherewithal to get started, and not put obstacles, a multitude of inspections, bureaucracy and form-filling in their way. If necessary, information should be extracted, from those who might not always have the competencies, through conversation and written down for them. I do not see why a lack of capacity to fill forms should be an obstacle to an entrepreneur. If such flexibility and commonsense was not applied, I would be afraid of people losing out.

There is a problem in accessing finance. There is a need for the local enterprise offices to support clients in getting finance. I would be hopeful of success in that area.

The LEOs will deliver business information and advisory services, enterprise support services, entrepreneurship support services and local Enterprise development services. As is usual best practice, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will still retain overall responsibility for national enterprise policy. That is how it should be. I am pleased with the local democratic input.

All the agencies of the county need to focus in on the LEOs to get a job creation culture going in every county. At present, there is nothing more important than the creation of jobs. We are doing well with the private sector creating 1,200 new jobs per week but we need to improve on this.

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