Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Minister of State with responsibility for small business, I am pleased that the first budget of this Government is taking the necessary steps to support our entrepreneurs and SMEs. I am acutely aware of the economic impact of our SMEs. Over 235,000 active enterprises in Ireland are micro and small enterprises, and this makes up almost 99% of all active enterprises and nearly 50% of private sector employment. Those jobs are spread across all counties and regions.

We need to continue to reward and encourage those risk takers who start a business and those who continue to take risks in creating and growing jobs. I welcome the improvements the Minister for Finance has made to the CGT entrepreneur relief, lowering the rate from 20% to 10%. I also welcome the Minister's signal that he will review the €1 million lifetime limit in future budgets. As Minister of State with responsibility for small business, I will continue to advocate for an improved tax regime to support those businesses that are taking risks and employing people.

As Deputies know, regional job creation has been a priority for the Government. We want to ensure that all regions, cities and towns are facilitated in achieving their economic potential. That is what the eight regional Action Plans for Jobs are all about. They are about getting things working from the bottom up and bringing private and public sector interests together to implement plans and deliver new ideas. The aim of these plans is to create almost 250,000 jobs across all regions by 2020. With 45,000 jobs created last year, this leaves 200,000 jobs to be achieved by the end of 2020, including 135,000 outside Dublin in all the regions. That will support the proposals of Deputies opposite who live outside Dublin. This is all part of the programme for Government.

Results so far are very encouraging. Since the first quarter of 2015, the national employment rate has fallen from 10% to 8.6%, and all eight regions have recorded a reduction in the rate of unemployment over that period. The Government continues to support the regional jobs agenda, with the largest enterprise allocation in over a decade. The IDA will see its capital funding grow by 22% to €137 million. Some of the additional moneys will enable it to progress three more advanced facilities in the regions, with new builds planned for Dundalk, Limerick and Galway next year.

On the Enterprise Ireland side, an additional allocation of €5 million in competitive funding was announced in June for 48 local and regional initiatives. A further €3 million was announced for a regional accelerator scheme for areas outside Dublin. In 2017, Enterprise Ireland will continue to roll out additional competitive regional funds to support collaborative approaches to job creation across the regions.

To ensure a very strong focus on regional development, the capital allocation to the local enterprise offices is also increasing by €4 million, from €18.5 million to €22.5 million. This recognises their potential to generate start-ups and job creation in the regions. The additional funding demonstrates the programme for Government's commitment to achieve regional balance in the delivery of jobs.

Brexit will present a significant challenges for us, as many speakers have said. The fall in sterling has hardened my resolve to work to deal with the challenges which Brexit poses to companies in Ireland. Volatility in exchange rates always presents challenges and I am particularly conscious of the scale and impact on the indigenous sector. Over the medium to long term, exchange rate volatility highlights the importance of focusing on a wide spectrum of competitive policies, in particular policies to enhance competition and productivity. A competitive and sustainable base can help to provide a buffer zone against exchange rate fluctuations and other uncontrollable external factors. With our plan to grow the number of jobs supported by the enterprise agencies, additional resources have been provided in the budget for 2017, primarily for staff resources, for Enterprise Ireland in the context of Brexit.

Enterprise Ireland is being provided with a total Exchequer capital allocation of €185 million. Some €63 million of this, an increase of 12%, is focusing on general enterprise development and business supports, and €122 million, an increase of 3.7%, is for its research and development supported activities. I welcome the extra resources Enterprise Ireland will benefit from, in order to support its clients in the face of Brexit.

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