Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 168: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the efforts made by her Department to stimulate demand amongst the small and medium enterprise sector for management development initiatives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20038/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Sound management capability amongst enterprise leaders is of utmost importance in enabling them to adapt to modern business practices, to sustain their enterprises against competitive forces and to innovate for growth, expansion and exports. In May 2007, as a follow-up to the recommendations in the Small Business Forum's Report, the Management Development Council was established, for a period of three years. The Council's objectives include the following:

To profile the adequacy and relevance of management development provision in Ireland;

To develop an Action Plan to close identified gaps in management development provision in Ireland.

To promote the development of a coordinated approach to building awareness and appreciation in the SME sector of the need to upgrade leadership and management skills.

The Council has met on three occasions and has a number of projects currently underway. These include:

A detailed census of all the Management Development Programmes, courses, schemes, services etc. available to SMEs;

A study to identify and understand the management development demands and needs of SMEs, and the barriers which inhibit SME participation in management development.

The Council will produce an Action Plan later this year. It will contain practical recommendations to my Department on supporting the development of world-class management skills within Irish SMEs.

The Agencies under the aegis of my Department, particularly, FÁS, Enterprise Ireland and the County and City Enterprise Boards in addition to supporting the general development of small and medium enterprises also support direct management development initiatives. Last year, FÁS through their One Step-Up Programme entered into a strategic alliance with six organisations to provide management development training to owners/managers of SMEs over the period 2007-2009. This training is being provided by Chambers Ireland, the IMI, Small Firms Association, ISME, National College of Ireland and Optimum Results. The cost of providing this training will be €10 million and it is expected that approximately 8,200 will avail of the training. Since its inception Skillnets has placed a strong emphasis on stimulating demand amongst the SME community. The result of this has been that approximately 85% of all companies funded through the Training Networks Programme (TNP) and the Accel initiative have been SMEs with owner/managers forming approximately 10% of the total trainee cohort.

Enterprise Ireland delivers a number of management development programmes such as, the Leadership 4 Growth Programme for CEOs in the Software and Life Sciences sectors and the Enterprise Platform Programme, which is a one-year rapid incubation programme designed to provide hands-on support and management development for entrepreneurs who wish to start their own business. The 35 County and City Enterprise Boards provide support for micro-enterprises 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. They also provide both financial and non-financial assistance to a project promoter. The provision of non-financial assistance can take the form of a wide range of business advice and information services, management capability training and development programmes, mentoring initiatives and targeted promotion activities such as enterprise education and female entrepreneurship promotion activities.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 169: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the progress to date in the provision of knowledge acquisition grants; the intended actions to be taken in this area over the coming years; the number of companies in the small and medium enterprise sector who have benefited from these grants to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20039/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Small Business Forum in its report 'Small Business is Big Business' sought that knowledge acquisition grants would be provided to small businesses in Manufacturing & Internationally Traded services. The Programme for Government 2007-2012 contained a commitment that such grants would be provided to enable small business in the manufacturing and internationally traded service sectors gain access to research based knowledge, expertise and facilities in higher educational institutes. Accordingly Enterprise Ireland recently launched a funding offer called "R&D Stimulation". Within the context of the new R&D Stimulation Grant programme, Enterprise Ireland will deliver the Knowledge Acquisition Grant Scheme.

R&D Stimulation Grant

The €30,000 R&D Stimulation Grant, launched in January 2008 is aimed at companies that are new to product, process and service development activities, and the support provided will allow companies to explore how research & innovation can drive their future development. Since the launch, 4 applications for R&D stimulation grant have been received and grants to the value of €116,836 have been approved.

Following directly on the launch of Enterprise Ireland's revised simplified R&D Grant Scheme in January of this year, EI has begun an aggressive R&D promotion campaign, including a web page which to date has received a total of 14,486 visits. The promotion campaign aims to:

advocate the importance of R&D as a means of securing future business profitability and export sales;

highlight the financial incentives available for R&D investment from EI including grant support for existing and strong R&D performers,

highlight new measures (such as the R&D stimulation grant) for first time R&D performers;

promote the R&D tax credits available to companies in respect of approved R&D expenditure;

promote the use of design as an important innovation tool.

In addition, EI will target clients through existing and new work programmes including:

ongoing EI engagement with clients through sectorial development advisors and technology advisors;

interaction with clients using the R&D advocates initiative which began in 2006 to interface with its clients who have minimal or no R&D activity. Through its R&D Awareness programme, EI offers 3-day consultancy support to clients to help formulate R&D strategy.

a new 'Innovation Networks' programme launched in March 2008.