Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I accept that. I was one of the people behind the driving of that agenda over an 11 year or 12 year period. A host of supports are available. All of us as public representatives have to do a really critical job. Regardless of whether we are in government or in opposition, we need to alert our constituents and those we represent to the products and supports that are out there. It is difficult to point young entrepreneurs who are in a hurry, and who might not be used to dealing with State agencies, in the right direction. Many of these people do not want to deal with State agencies. It is critical that we put them in contact with people who understand their businesses. The staff of the local enterprise offices understand these businesses. We are monitoring very seriously what these offices are doing. We are keeping an eye on a set of key performance indicators all the time. I assure the House that local enterprise office staff across the country are responding in a positive way to Government policy and to this new arrangement.

Senators Gilroy and Zappone and others made some clear points about the monitoring of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. They said we need to make sure that the money available to the corporation gets to the businesses that need it very quickly and that new products are made available through the corporation. I do not necessarily believe we need a whole host of new banks in this country. That is probably the last thing we need, in some respects. We need the banks we have to function properly and to meet the needs of citizens and the small and medium-sized enterprise community. We need to make sure the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland delivers on its mandate to deliver more and newer longer-term financial products that are more easily accessible and respond to the real needs that exist.

I will be meeting senior officials from the SBCI very shortly to pass on the views of Senators in terms of what needs to happen and how the corporation needs to respond to the needs of SMEs. The last thing we want is for a situation to emerge whereby there is a lack of public confidence in the SBCI because of its close relationship with the pillar banks. We need to make sure that people have confidence in the SBCI because it is potentially a game changer. It has a really serious wedge of money to make available to SMEs which must be delivered properly and in a timely fashion.

Senators made reference to the entrepreneurial culture in this country. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, the Minister of State, Deputy English and I have concluded the work of our Department in developing a new national entrepreneurship policy statement. I found it extraordinary, on entering the Department about four months ago, that we did not have a national policy on entrepreneurship but we have one now. I am particularly interested in supporting entrepreneurs and am glad that Senator Barrett made reference to the competition to find Ireland's best young entrepreneur, the response to which has been truly magnificent.

I attended the Student Slingshot event last night which was organised by Enterprise Ireland. There were approximately 150 participants, most from our universities and institutes of technology where there are now entrepreneurship societies, which is something that did not exist when I entered university 21 years ago. There is a real sense of confidence among young people. They believe they can do the business and see themselves as potential entrepreneurs. As with the saying that there is a good book in everybody, I believe there is a good business idea in everybody and people just need to be encouraged to bring it forward. The State agencies are there to support that. I heard some fantastic ideas last night. If we can get young people to work with the research and development units in their colleges and universities and with Enterprise Ireland to monetise and commercialise their ideas, then we will have a very positive future.