Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment If he will report on the work undertaken through Enterprise Ireland's productivity improvement fund; the number of companies assisted by this fund in each year since its creation; if any empirical data on the effects of this assistance has been recorded, and if so the average and median expected annual savings for companies assisted by the fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37752/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The administration and evaluation of Enterprise Ireland's productivity improvement fund is a day to day matter for the agency itself, and not one in which I am directly involved. The productivity improvement fund (PIF) was launched in May 2005. The initiative is primarily aimed at encouraging client companies, of both Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development, to undertake investments in capital equipment, technology acquisition and training projects. It is envisaged that productivity improvement projects, approved under this fund, will assist recipient companies in increasing exports, or establishing a base from which they can develop their exports.

Since the productivity improvement fund was launched in May 2005, 147 companies have been approved funding totalling €29.178m. In 2005, 39 companies were approved funding totalling €8.533m. In 2006, to date, 108 companies were approved funding totalling €20.645m. The €29 million approved by the fund has resulted in leveraging investments of €55 million from companies, bringing the total projected spend by companies to circa €84million. Under the PIF scheme, companies have two years from the date of initial letter of offer, to start drawing down the grant. Since the launch of the scheme, 21 companies have had payments made to them, these payments amounted to €1.660m. The following table outlines payments and approvals made to companies under the scheme in 2005 and 2006. The companies who have been approved funding to date have committed to undertaking projects that will be implemented over a two year period. As the scheme was only launched in May 2005, the majority of projects have not yet been completed, and it is therefore too early to conduct a full impact assessment of the funding on client company performance. However, I am informed that Enterprise Ireland plan to commence an interim review of the scheme in December 2006.