Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are a range of supports out there from the agencies, whether from Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland or the local enterprise offices, which also do great work in helping businesses. There are vouchers and there is the market discovery fund and the Be Prepared grant, so there are supports are available to businesses.

A number of months ago I launched Future Jobs Ireland 2019, which is whole-of-Government initiative that looks at exactly what the Deputy is talking about, namely, how we can future-proof this economy but, more especially, how we can ensure our businesses remain competitive. There are a number of pillars in this plan. The first one is embracing new technology. We will launch the disruptive technologies fund and we hope to bring businesses in to show them how new technology is going to change the way they do business, whether through artificial intelligence or robotics.

The second pillar of that plan is improving productivity within the SMEs, which is what the Deputy talked about. We will work with them to look at how they need to improve their processes and whether they need to go onto lean programmes where they can be more productive. Many things are happening. I will have another meeting with the SMEs within the next month at which I will talk to them.

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