Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome these amendments. The EII scheme has needed reform and improvement. It provides vital funding in the early stages of life for many businesses and it is important that we make it as attractive as possible so those businesses are given the opportunity to scale up and have access to the level of funding they require to achieve this. The changes in amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, combined with the other changes will, I hope, help to improve the overall attractiveness of the scheme. I also hope Revenue will have adequate resources to ensure the scheme can be administered efficiently. Issues have been raised with regard to turnaround times and my understanding is that they have improved. I am not getting the complaints now that I was getting 12 to 18 months ago about the administrative operation of the EII scheme. I welcome the amendments.

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