Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the dedicated supports available to companies from Enterprise Ireland aimed at increasing awareness of, and promoting, eco efficiency in their operations; the number of companies to date that have taken advantage of these supports; the cost to the State of these supports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8324/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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While this is an operational matter for Enterprise Ireland, I understand that Enterprise Ireland (EI) operates two direct financial support schemes that help Irish SMEs to increase awareness of and promote eco-efficiency in their operations. These are the Environmental Management System (EMS) Support Scheme and the Environmentally Superior Products (ESP) Support Scheme.

(1) The Environmental Management System (EMS) Support Scheme.

This Scheme provides 50% funding (up to a total of €12,700 from EI) to help companies to install an Environmental Management System (EMS) that complies with the ISO 14001 Standard. An EMS allows a company to proactively manage its environmental issues, including areas such as Waste Management, Energy Management, reduction in the use of Hazardous Chemicals, etc. An EMS can help a company to reduce costs on waste disposal and energy usage. It is also particularly valuable as a marketing tool as it allows the company to clearly demonstrate its "green" credentials to the marketplace.

The EMS Support Scheme has been in operation since late 1998 and since then 105 Irish SMEs have been approved for funding. The total funds approved in that time have been €775,123. The actual drawdown of funds in that period has been €441,512.

(2) The Environmentally Superior Products (ESP) Support Scheme.

This Scheme provides 50% funding (up to a total of €31,750 from EI) to help companies to develop an Environmentally Superior Product (ESP). An ESP is an industrial product which has significant environmental benefits over a conventional product, for example, an electrical product designed to use the minimum amount of power, have no hazardous chemicals involved in either its manufacture or working life, be easy to disassemble at the end of life to facilitate recycling, etc.

The ESP Support Scheme has been running since 1999 and has supported 40 Irish SMEs to date with total approvals over the life of the scheme to date being €1m. Associated costs of the scheme are approx. €15k per annum covering mainly staff costs.

As well as the two "hard" financial support schemes above, EI provides a range of "soft" supports:

(a) The Envirocentre website; www.envirocentre.ie — this website provides up to date information on a range of environmental issues relevant to industry.

(b) Regional Industrial Environmental Fora. These are regional seminars that cover relevant environmental issues for the SME sector, e.g. the new REACH Regulation.

(c) Technical advice to Irish SMEs from a range of in-house experts in various environmental fields.