Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will establish a one stop shop to assist entrepreneurs with business start ups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25349/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The role of the thirty-five County and City Enterprise Boards is to provide a source of support for micro-enterprise in the start-up and expansion phases, to promote and develop indigenous micro-enterprise potential and to stimulate economic activity and entrepreneurship at local level. The CEBs can provide a single point of contact at local level for new and established small businesses. The CEBs can support individuals, firms and community groups provided that the proposed projects have the capacity to achieve commercial viability. However, they must give priority to manufacturing and internationally traded services.

In addition, the BASIS (Business Access to State Information Services) website is a cross-departmental e-Government initiative managed by my Department which delivers Government Information and Services from a single reference point. It provides a one-stop shop for information and services that are relevant to the business community, including entrepreneurs with business start-ups. Details provided for example include information on starting a business, funding, employment issues, taxation, legal and regulatory and environmental issues.

While acknowledging that entrepreneurs and small owner/managers in Ireland currently have access to a very wide range of information sources, nevertheless the Small Business Forum Report recommended the development, launch and promotion of a first-stop "Knowledge Base", which would be a comprehensive central resource of relevant, up-to-date, user-led business information for entrepreneurs, owner/managers and their advisers.

The Forum recommended that the "Knowledge Base" as envisaged would be substantially different from anything currently available from public or private sources, but would build on the best of those sources.

The ongoing implementation of the recommendations of the Small Business Forum, to the maximum extent possible, remains a priority for Government. Considerable progress has already been made on the implementation of many of these recommendations.

The development of a "Knowledge Base" along the lines envisaged by the Small Business Forum, would require cross-departmental and cross agency support and private sector commitment at the highest level during the initial stages of development, the gathering of the content and the key task of keeping it up to date. My Department is in the process of setting up a Steering Group of stakeholders in such a project, including representatives of Enterprise Ireland, Forfás, the County Enterprise Boards, the Business Information Centres and my Department to consider how this might best be advanced.