James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, those supports and schemes are useful. I will propose two potential practical solutions if the Tánaiste is minded to adopt or consider them, the first of which addresses difficulties experienced by small firms. Some of these can be startup enterprises of one to ten people, so we are not discussing established companies with capital and reserves. Under the JobsPlus scheme, a person is hired from the live register and the employing company receives a cash credit for every month that he or she remains in employment. Would the Department consider an "R&DPlus" scheme? Along similar lines as JobsPlus, where demonstrable innovation takes place, an actual cash credit or financial advance would be made to the company to support that work. It is a real measure and companies would not have to wait until the end of the year or face the uncertainty of it being clawed back. Rather, they could avail of it in the same way that employers do under JobsPlus.

My second proposal is the idea of a mentoring scheme in which lean processing, such as Lean Six Sigma, and other advanced business practices can be brought to bear on smaller companies that may not be aware or availing of them. This could be done simply and cheaply. It would involve pairing up retired industrialists with SMEs in their sectors through local enterprise offices, LEOs, and education and training boards, ETBs. This could solve the problem without requiring significant capital investment.

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