Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy might write to me about those two initiatives. I would be happy to raise them with Enterprise Ireland and consider them within my Department to determine whether we can progress them.

I would encourage small businesses to use another somewhat underused scheme, namely, the innovation voucher. The budget has allocated €4 million for it. It promotes a transfer of knowledge between Ireland's public knowledge providers and small business companies. Vouchers worth €5,000 each are provided to enable small businesses to seek assistance, be it in terms of skill or knowledge, from publicly funded researchers to address problems or proposals in respect of their business activities. This could be an important initiative for the small businesses of up to ten employees that the Deputy mentioned. It is meant to get them started. They may have ideas about how to innovate or diversify their businesses but do not know where to start. The innovation voucher is useful, but somewhat underused. It is important, in that it helps smaller companies to deal with the cashflow issues the Deputy mentioned. The amount is small, but it might have a good impact if used.

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