Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Small to medium-sized enterprises are an integral part of the Irish business network. Only this morning, I launched the small to medium enterprise and entrepreneurship, SMEE, consultation group, which in conjunction with the OECD will draft a report on the SME sector in Ireland. The report will be an important one. I will also attend a working group dealing with this issue in Paris next week. I expect the report to deal with the past, the present and the future of SME sector. It is hoped it will be published by the OECD with recommendations in the third quarter of this year. There was a huge turnout of businesses, SMEs, agencies, including Government agencies, at the event this morning, all of whom are very active in this area and want to get involved in the consultation process.

As the Deputy rightly pointed out, SMEs are important to the economy because they are located in the regions, the counties and the communities. The purpose of the local enterprise offices is to provide mentoring and training to SMEs.

On the €300 million loan scheme, today the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, launched a future loan scheme to help SMEs and the farming sector to prepare for the future as well. There is a lot happening in this area, and we will continue to act in this way in the future as well, irrespective of Brexit, because we know that the indigenous industries and SMEs will be affected by Brexit in the future. We allocated approximately €1.8 million to the Craft Council recently. Enterprise Ireland got an additional €2.5 million. This is all part of an effort to help the SME sector, because it is really important.

See this speech in context