Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:"acknowledges:— the central role of the self-employed and micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the jobs recovery, which have generated the majority of the 90,000 extra jobs, with particularly strong performance by enterprises supported by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Enterprise Offices (LEO); and — the central role of the Action Plan for Jobs (APJ) process in improving each year the opportunities for SMEs, which sets out actions and is designed to achieve specific impacts in terms of exports, start-ups, access to finance, market penetration, innovation, access to talent, recruitment, and the environment for doing business; and notes in particular:— the improvements in the tax environment for SMEs that have been made; — the new sources of finance that are being made available to SMEs; — the new focus on start-ups since the launch of Ireland's first strategy for entrepreneurship:National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland; — the success of the Pathways to Work strategy, new measures to help SMEs recruit such as JobsPlus and the roll out of a network of Intreo offices that work closely with the new LEOs to improve recruitment by SMEs off the Live Register; and — that it resolves to continue to engage with SMEs on a systematic basis and to develop policy initiative's that will assist their growth in the Budget and in the wider policy arena." - (Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation)

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