Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree with Deputy Bruton that this is vital for the long term and short term in terms of identifying start-ups of all sizes throughout the country that have serious potential. I must give credit in particular to the local enterprise offices throughout the country. I am fortunate to visit them. We see new businesses coming on stream and not only establishing themselves within the first two years but taking on employees also. They move from being a one-person operation to having two or three employees and potentially moving into being Enterprise Ireland clients in their own right.

Some of the areas identified for improvement and more co-ordinated thinking are density, clustering, supporting start-ups of all sizes and focusing on specific geographic regions that lend themselves to providing an environment to allow for increased development and foreign opportunities. Deputy Bruton is right about venture capital and angel capital. It is about looking at venture capitalists and pushing them not only to high-performance opportunities but to all opportunities, particularly with local enterprise office client companies.

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