Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for mentioning those important areas. I turn first to simplification. I have met Enterprise Ireland and our LEO sector, and we are keen to drive the message home that we need conditions that are simple for family businesses to get those supports, critically in the transition to digitalisation and sustainability. If we do not support our businesses, it will not be possible to meet that transition. We have established a National Enterprise Hub that has more than 250 supports from 29 Government Departments and agencies all under one portal. They have a return time of less than 24 hours, with phone operators at the other end of the line to reply to customers. That is critical to assist them with some bespoke examples that pertain to their business models. That has been successful. We have seen a significant increase in callers and people interacting on the website over past months. You can see the advertising campaign under way to make people aware of those supports which we want to get out to businesses.

We also have our SME tests, which I am trying to get into the Cabinet handbook, which direct that an impact assessment must be carried out on all memorandums, primary legislation changes and statutory instrument changes - at the heart of each decision - to demonstrate how it impacts on our SME sector and in thinking small first. It will be important to reach that milestone.

On the National Training Fund legislation, the heads of Bill went before Cabinet this week. That will be keenly focused on our tertiary education sector, but also on our SMEs and how we can get money into upskilling, life-long learning and continuing to train people across our economy. It is critical to our success that we have the skill base to ensure we can grow and absorb the huge opportunity that is out there. That will be very important.

With regard to other supports, we are currently preparing our pre-budget submission for budget 2026. We, along with the Ministers of State, Deputies Smyth and Dillon, have met a number of the sectors. Yesterday we had our enterprise forum where we heard all the views on what our enterprise sector would like to see in budget 2026. They are wide-ranging. As a country, last year was the first time we went over the €100 billion barrier, with a budget of €105.5 billion. That shows the significant improvements we have made, but the Deputy rightly alluded to the significant clouds on the horizon. We have to be careful we are hitting the right parts.

Key from my point of view will be significant changes in the research and development tax credit and, hopefully, we can get small, indigenous companies as part of that. As well as supporting the enterprise sector, we are trying to reduce regulation, which is important, and continuing to get as much scaling up and as many new companies. We have established a target of having 1,000 new companies, through Enterprise Ireland, over the next five years and getting up to 275,000 employees, supported by Enterprise Ireland. We are also trying to ensure significant investment in regional Ireland. It will be core and central to our ministerial team to ensure the regions grow strongly. I know that is something I share with the Deputy.

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