Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending to have this all-important debate. I know how committed he is to this area and the work he has been doing.

Alarm bells rang through my head when I read a newspaper report on Limerick and the wider Munster area and how there had been a 4% drop in business start-ups. I will preface my comments by saying that local enterprise offices, LEOs, are doing fantastic work. They are running a number of training days, encouraging people to get involved and trying to instil confidence in business start-ups. I served on an old enterprise board for 15 years and am aware of how important LEOs are to businesses, especially small start-ups.I served on the former enterprise board for 15 years and am very aware of how important LEOs are to businesses, particularly small start-ups. I am concerned that people are not confident enough to start a business and I want to highlight the supports available through the Department and the LEOs by way of courses and mentoring programmes. The latter are very important for business start-ups. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply. He visited us in Limerick recently and saw the wonderful work that is going on there. It is important to have a discussion on this because there are people considering starting businesses but they are lacking in confidence.