Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Cullinane has said, we will be supporting amendments Nos. 30 and 31.

Having read the business, enterprise and innovation section of the Bill, I am underwhelmed by the provisions for business. I have spoken to many business groups in recent weeks and they are not exactly enthusiastic about it either. Much more remains to be done on this issue.

However, I welcome the provisions to give more power to Enterprise Ireland to assist Irish businesses exposed to the consequences of Brexit. In the spirit of approaching this Bill on a cross-party basis, we tabled two constructive amendments in the business section. Unfortunately one has been ruled out of order, like a lot of the others, but I will outline the aim of the other in a few moments.

A large portion of the business, enterprise and innovation section is dedicated to providing new powers for Enterprise Ireland. I note that many of these were already planned and contained in the proposed industrial development (miscellaneous provisions) Bill 2017. These changes for Enterprise Ireland will see the jobs agency being given the power to provide loans to client companies, as opposed to the current situation where they can only offer financial support through direct equity stakes or grants for specific purposes.

Enterprise Ireland will also be authorised to make research and development grants for research that is, in part, carried out abroad if its purpose is to broaden a firm's export market beyond the UK. I ask the Minister to provide more clarity on this and give examples of how it would operate.

Enterprise Ireland has been an incredibly successful vehicle for supporting and creating jobs across Ireland, and helping many Irish SMEs to take the leap into exporting. We hope these additional functions will help Enterprise Ireland build on this success and continue to grow our exports to a wide variety of foreign markets.

I note the Bill aims to expand the caps on state aid that can be given to companies. It seems this is just raising the limits for what is already permitted under EU law.

If this is the case can the Minister outline why this has not been done so far.

I wish to ask the Minister about the current Brexit business supports. The latest figures to date are very dismal with just three weeks to go until Brexit. Just 81 loans with a value of €17.3 million have been given out under the €300 million Brexit loan scheme, a tiny 6% of the total pot. Only 241 market discovery grants have been approved while one while just 156 Be Prepared grants have been sanctioned. The Minister will have to admit that this is an incredibly poor uptake is of these Government supports. These supports are of no help to businesses is if they cannot access them. There is obviously a problem as to why companies are not accessing these supports which the Minister needs to address. I have asked the Minister on a number of occasions to review these current supports, to cut down on red tape and to widen the criteria where possible. Has the Minister done any of those things we have asked her to do in the past? Has the Department and the jobs agencies reviewed their performance of these? Is there any underlying reason as to why these are not performing?

I have couple of points also on Údarás na Gaeltachta and I appreciate that it does not come under the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, but due to the obvious job-creation role of Údarás na Gaeltachta in addition to its responsibility for the social cultural development of Gaeltacht regions, the Department must engage with the údarás extensively. Jobs in our Gaeltacht areas are incredibly valuable to local communities and we must do all we can to protect current jobs located there and increase the number of businesses setting up in our Gaeltacht regions. On this basis, can the Minister outline if an examination has been undertaken to explore how exposed Údarás na Gaeltachta client-companies are to Brexit? Has Údarás na Gaeltachta been contact as to whether it feels it needs any additional powers, such as the new borrowing powers that are being extended to Enterprise Ireland, or additional funds for grants?

Amendment No. 31, a Sinn Féin amendment, seeks to instruct the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to compile a report on the effectiveness of the current Brexit business supports and to present this report to the joint Oireachtas Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation. It is clear from the data that the uptake of current Government supports is not working. Something, as I said earlier, has gone seriously wrong - I mentioned the figures earlier. This is a shocking and poor uptake of the Government supports. Business supports may look good in the media and when they are announced at the Minister's press conferences, but they are no help to businesses if they cannot access them. I have asked the Minister to review the current supports, cut down the red tape and widen criteria where possible. As far as I am aware this has not happened to date. If passed, the review mentioned in the amendment would include but not be limited to examining why there has been such a low uptake of these Brexit business supports to date, identify barriers for businesses in accessing these supports and offer solutions on how to make it easier for businesses to benefit from these supports.

I ask the House to support this amendment which I will press.

See this speech in context