Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill, the Title of which is misleading to a certain extent. The real intention and purpose of the Bill is to allow for reform of the system of supports to microenterprise and to focus on the small to medium-sized enterprise, SME, sector, thereby driving growth and encouraging a culture of entrepreneurship as a career. As the Minister has noted, the indigenous microenterprise and small business sectors are the lifeblood of the economy. Reform of supports for this sector is central to economic recovery, job creation and the future development of the economy. The new structures are designed to make the operating environment more coherent, responsive and conducive to entrepreneurship at local level.

The Bill is part of a process to bring together the microenterprise and small business supports currently provided by county enterprise boards, CEBs, Enterprise Ireland and the local authorities into one central location. At present, there is an overlap between the CEBs and business supports provided by local authorities in their economic development units. Not all local authorities had business development strategic policy committees, SPCs, that were effective. Some local authorities, such as Cork County Council, already have put in place a strong economic development structure in the form of an SPC. In County Cork, this committee has a budget of €1 million a year and the SPC works very closely with the enterprise boards and the Leader groups to try to ensure that worthwhile projects get off the ground. However, until now, Enterprise Ireland was not part of this process..

Many small businesses and start-ups found the sourcing of supports confusing and difficult. Local authorities, because of their many functions that affect or encourage small businesses, should be at the centre of any one-stop-shop concept. Issues such as land use, zoning, road infrastructure and environmental regulations all are considerations that must be taken into account by expanding existing businesses or start-ups. The work of enterprise boards is to be subsumed into the economic development section of local authorities. While Enterprise Ireland would not normally supply direct support to small businesses, the new structures envisage the creation of a specialised section within Enterprise Ireland to develop best practice with regard to supports for small businesses and microenterprises, thereby ensuring that all staff working in the new enterprise offices will be trained to the same level as the staff in Enterprise Ireland. It is intended to establish LEOs and to create a first-stop shop within local authorities and this will be achieved when Enterprise Ireland enters a service level agreement with each local authority. I welcome this morning's announcement that they will be up and running by April 2014, which is fantastic. This connectivity among all agencies also will allow businesses that have clear high-growth potential to be fast-tracked to the next level of support from Enterprise Ireland or other State agencies.

At the other end of the spectrum, it remains to be seen how the business development section of the old Leader groups will fit into the process. I appreciate that as the Leader groups will form part of the new local development companies, LDCs, they will be integrated into the system. At present, they are part of the economic development SPC. However, under the current system, local development companies were not as restricted in grant-aiding businesses in their specific areas as were the enterprise boards or the economic development sections of local authorities. Local development companies only needed to be concerned with displacement in their own or adjoining areas and were less restricted in the type of business they could support. This issue is important for peripheral areas and areas under development, where services for the public might not otherwise be available. This issue must be considered and recognition must be given to the fact that national or county guidelines will not provide basic services or jobs in these areas unless special provision is made. I refer, for example, to funding for cafes, restaurants and perhaps some retail in some of the more regional rural areas.

Mentoring is a crucial part of the State supports offered and in many areas it is more important or at least as important to a developing business as is financial support. Together with the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, I have been working on this issue for almost two years. We commissioned a report and conducted some research, which led to the report being taken on by Forfás, which carried out an in-depth study. Some key recommendations have arisen therefrom, which I am sure the Minister will be glad to tell me will comprise part of the action plan for jobs that will be announced next April. I would welcome that.

This is an important Bill and I am glad its passage finally is under way. I acknowledge that it has been a longer journey than expected, but it demonstrates the Government's commitment to the SME sector, to entrepreneurship and to supporting all the regions, not just the urban regions, for which the Government sometimes gets criticised. However, it is important to generate sustainable jobs and to begin to examine different models of achieving that. In this context, consideration also must be given to co-ops and social enterprise, which will be fantastic. While I appreciate that the day-to-day workings of the LEOs might not have been worked out fully yet, the staff in these new offices also should visit the regions to meet people. At present, they usually work behind walls and one must telephone them, after which they might come out. However, were it to be made known that they would be present in a region on a particular day each month, the staff would be on the ground more often and would gain knowledge in so doing that could feed into the system and have better outcomes. I commend this Bill to the House.

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