Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide the socioeconomic backgrounds of persons supported by Enterprise Ireland; and the actions being utilised to ensure that persons from lower income brackets are being helped to set up new businesses. [6345/15]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is researching the experience of women in enterprise. We are also investigating the response of State organisations to women in enterprise. People from low or low-to-middle income backgrounds also have difficulties with regard to enterprise. What supports is the Government providing to ensure that this sector of society has full access to enterprise?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Under the Action Plan for Jobs, the Government has published an array of actions designed to ensure full employment by 2018. The plan also contains a suite of actions to promote entrepreneurship, to encourage people to start their own businesses and to help individuals with a viable business idea to access crucial start-up funding. These supports are of course available to all individuals regardless of their socioeconomic background. In order to facilitate easy access to such programmes, the Department has established a network of 31 local enterprise offices, LEOs, located within local authorities as a first-stop shop to access all Government programmes. The LEOs have protocols in place with the Department of Social Protection, SOLAS, the Revenue Commissioners and other agencies to ensure persons from all backgrounds can get the help they need in an accessible way. These include access to back to work enterprise allowances, minor support grants and secondary benefits for people who have been out of work. Services offered by the LEO network include training and mentoring of those whose business experience may be limited so that they can get appropriate support and guidance.

In addition, it supports applications by clients to Microfinance Ireland. This source of lending is specifically designed for persons who do not have easy access to the banking system. Local enterprise offices have a service level agreement with Enterprise Ireland which specifically provides for seamless access for LEO clients to other Enterprise Ireland programmes.

It is encouraging that we are seeing good growth in start-ups and in the ambition of people to start a business. There were approximately 18,000 new business registrations last year. One of the objectives of our entrepreneurship strategy is to see an increase in the number of people from what might be regarded as disadvantaged backgrounds and other under-represented groups who start their own businesses.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister of State's answer. In fairness, he has indicated a number of actions that are being used to help people who have been unemployed or who have had difficulties obtaining finance. Many sectors have experienced unemployment and difficulty in obtaining finance and, as such, it is not the fact that people's immediate financial experience might place them in the low-paid bracket that I am necessarily trying to get at. The Minister of State probably knows what I am trying to get at. I am trying to find out what can be done in future to ensure that the energy, enthusiasm, skills and ability of people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds can be harnessed for the benefit of enterprise. For example, when women have difficulties gaining access to enterprise, it means we are shutting out 50% of the skills available to the State to grow the economy. What research has been done on the socioeconomic backgrounds of the individuals who are accessing the supports the State is providing? If we could obtain those statistics, we could then start to provide specific supports for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, just as we do for women.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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This is an area that concerns me and the Tánaiste. The establishment of Intreo offices has been very positive. The Department of Social Protection has moved from what might be termed a passive payment model to an activation model. Staff in Intreo offices are very linked in with local enterprise offices and other agencies to ensure that people who have business ideas get the support they need, whether through LEOs or SOLAS, to establish their businesses or test their ideas. Deputy Tóibín and I are on the same page regarding the view that a person's socioeconomic circumstances should never be a barrier to accessing business opportunities. There is an old adage that there is a good book in everyone, but I also consider that there is a good business idea in everyone, if it could only be brought out by those who can provide support and mentorship. There are start-your-own-business courses operated by Leader partnership companies and the back to work enterprise allowance is a further important initiative. We included particular measures in the last budget, including the start-up relief entrepreneurship scheme, which is very positive for those moving from the PAYE sector into their own businesses. Protocols have been established between the Department of Social Protection, LEOs and Enterprise Ireland to support people from lower-income backgrounds, particularly those moving from welfare to work, to help them establish their own businesses. Microfinance Ireland plays a significant role in assisting entrepreneurs who have difficulty accessing capital on foot of issues around collateral and helps them to set up their own businesses at a micro level.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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While I appreciate what the Minister of State has said, the first thing we need to do is to measure exactly what is happening within the system. If one cannot measure, one cannot manage. If we do not have the statistics to identify exactly the incidence of success and failure, it is very hard to put things in place. There is a seeding ground for enterprise which involves those who are the sons and daughters of entrepreneurs themselves, people from middle management in companies, people with a high level of education and those with access to finance. Geography is also an enormous factor because of the issue of access to markets. I call on the Government to implement a method of obtaining the necessary statistics to provide us with a clear insight into the incidence of entrepreneurship at all levels of society and to establish an implementation group to ensure that the tools the Government is currently using can be added to if necessary to allow us to harness the energies of everyone in society.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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A customer service review is being undertaken with LEOs. The Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, and I are determined to ensure that those metrics are very strong. We have come from a position of massively high unemployment and our aim is to get unemployment under 10% by the end of the year with a view to moving towards full employment. As such, there is an understanding across the agencies in the system that a strong effort is required to encourage people to move from welfare to work, including opportunities for people to establish their own businesses. That data is very important. It is not something I have at my fingertips at the moment, but to the best of my knowledge it is available across the system. Deputy Tóibín is absolutely right that we need to have proper metrics where we are trying to crack a problem. I take that on board. However, there are a range of programmes across the country that are designed to bring people from welfare into a position in which they are setting up their own businesses. For example, I am familiar in my own constituency with the IgnYte programme, which is supported by the Department of Social Protection and my own Department and operated by a local education development agency working with The Mill enterprise centre in Drogheda. The programme aims to encourage people to set up their own businesses when they are moving from welfare to work.

A lot of this is about changing the culture and people's expectations of themselves. Everyone can start up a business and there should not be any socioeconomic barriers to doing so. We are all determined to ensure that any barriers are removed.