Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for bringing this Bill through the Seanad. It is an important day for enterprise in light of the budget yesterday and the measures put in place. Obviously, however, to use the cliche, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. It is important that areas such as counties Donegal and Sligo with which the Minister of State will be very familiar must get the jobs boost that is being experienced on the east coast. However, I hope the new local enterprise offices, LEOs, will be able to do that. I spoke to a young software engineer in Letterkenny last Monday who has developed an app. He has got it to the stage at which he has travelled to Japan to get software installed and is at the final stage of its development. It is unique and represents the type of industry, company or small business that could benefit in this regard. I have advised him to contact the enterprise board because his training is in software engineering, he is working at the same time, and is spending his own savings on getting the project this far. People like this individual need the help and I am sure the new LEOs, like the old enterprise boards-----