Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Smith is right to point out the pressure that small manufacturing and engineering businesses, particularly start-ups, are under with regard to access to finance. It is very important that they get finance at competitive rates.

With regard to helping existing SMEs with their working capital, the new Microfinance Ireland thresholds are increasing from €25,000 to €50,000. The Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, is taking that Bill through the Oireachtas at present and it will be important to try to provide working capital for SMEs in that sector at low, competitive rates. Some 14 credit unions have embarked as agents of that fund, which is very important and has over €1 billion available. These are measures targeted at start-ups, which are the multinationals of the future. The Deputy is right that local authorities do not have the capacity in many instances to deliver high-quality space for them, and that is where agencies like Enterprise Ireland come into play. We will work with those agencies in the future to ensure we are prioritising this.

We can never take our eye off the ball with regard to innovation. High-quality start-ups are businesses that we have to support. I have been at many events and we have just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the local enterprise offices, LEOs, for which the new strategy is being launched today. It will be an exciting time for us to reprioritise in order to ensure we are achieving that fertile ground for innovation to grow and ensure we are creating the multinationals of the future. We could argue that the most important point is access to finance, which is the lifeblood and is critical for them. We will do all we can to improve those conditions in the future.

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