Written answers

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Small and Medium Enterprise

10:00 pm

Photo of Jack WallJack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 76: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will report on her recent meeting with the Small Firms Association to discuss the difficulties facing that sector, particularly in regard to the credit crunch; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44887/08]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Priority Question No. 67 earlier in today's Session.

The Tánaiste met with the Small Firms Association (SFA) and the Irish Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Association (ISME) on 19th November 2008 to discuss their concerns on a range of issues impacting on small business, including access to credit from financial institutions, arising from the credit crunch.

While the banking sector is the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Finance, Mr. Brian Lenihan T.D, in my Department we have, nevertheless, working closely with the Minister and officials of his Department on encouraging the banks to assume their responsibility to provide support to economic development and, in particular, to provide credit to SMEs. As I highlighted earlier, a number of Irish banks have over the last week, announced significant financial lending packages to assist SMEs. In addition, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has indicated that it is in discussions with four Irish banks in relation to its recently announced €30 billion facility to provide loans to SMEs through commercial banks. I very much welcome these important developments.

My Department's continuous support for indigenous companies arises through maintaining a positive business environment and through particular interventions from the State development agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, FÁS and the County and City Enterprise Boards. The significant allocations in my Department's Estimates for 2009, will ensure that we continue to build on this strategy for the future.

Enterprise Ireland is the agency with responsibility for supporting the development of Irish companies with ambitions to grow in world markets. Many of its client companies are small to medium in size. Enterprise Ireland recognises the varied challenges facing such companies in the context of the changing economic environment and partners with companies to address their needs in a holistic manner.

Attractive BES and Seed Capital schemes contribute to the provision of capital investment across a range of SMEs. In addition to this, Enterprise Ireland is directly involved in Venture Capital initiatives also attracting investment for businesses. As a result of the Government's investment of €175m channelled through EI, 7 new venture capital funds have raised over €500m which is available to invest in the Irish SME sector.

Also funded through my Department, the 35 County and City Enterprise Boards provide support to small businesses or micro-enterprises with 10 employees or less. CEB funding will increase next year by almost €3 million, or 9%, to €34.8 million and this represents a further indication of the Government's commitment to supporting this sector of business.

FÁS through their One Step Up programme is encouraging employees to increase their competency levels and promoting an ethos of lifelong learning in the workplace. Its key intervention in this regard is the Competency Development Programme. It offers workers different types of training programmes directed at various skill levels across major economic sectors. These training programmes are available to employees of SMEs. FÁS also have a number of other training programmes aimed at upskilling SME's namely, Skillnets and FÁS Strategic Alliance programme.

The Government has also made very considerable progress on the implementation of the Small Business Forum Report's recommendations. This progress is reflected through a substantial package of financial measures and schemes introduced to assist the sector over the last two years, including fiscal measures in the 2007 and 2008 Finance Acts.

SMEs are central to our economic development and the range of measures and supports outlined above will continue to help the sector adapt to the current economic climate. These measures will be kept under review to ensure that they remain appropriate to the current circumstances.

In our Department we will continue to remain in regular contact with the Department of Finance and will ensure that the issue of availability of credit to SMEs is kept under constant review. We will also continue to consult with ISME and SFA on all issues impacting on small businesses and we welcome their continued valuable input.

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