Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The solution is not to put responsibility for enterprise support into local authorities, but more what Senator Cummins mentioned - to have a significant one-stop shop where people can go to access not only the enterprise network, whatever that is, but other functions. I understand that business development units in local authorities help to steer people through the planning and licensing processes they operate. That is a useful service. I do not see the need for an institutional merger. If the services are located in offices that are not too far away from one another, we do not need to create a merged structure to get people to talk to one another. My ambition is for a good, coherent microenterprise service to be delivered nationally - it should not be different in each place - that works to a high standard in mentoring, training and whatever other services it delivers, and that has proper connections to what is being done in the localities.

To be fair to Senator Cullinane, there seems to be a breakdown in collaboration or communication between some of the local authorities and some of the agencies in the Waterford area, and we will certainly look at that.