Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans for the development of business incubation centres and hot desk centres here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10008/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to ensuring the appropriate infrastructure is in place to facilitate an environment in which enterprise can flourish and sustainable jobs can be created. Our programme for Government outlines the measures that will be explored to maximise enterprise development. The establishment of business incubation centres on higher education campuses across Ireland is supported by capital investment from my Department's Vote, provided through Enterprise Ireland. Such facilities are internationally recognised as an important element of public assistance for technology-intensive start-ups. They differ from other types of space in the supportive environment in that they offer client companies services such as business mentoring from a dedicated centre manager and a local network of experts, the opportunity to leverage academic research and development expertise, access to specialised facilities that they could not themselves typically afford, student placements and recruitment and fostered networking with other start-ups in the centres and more widely.

Enterprise Ireland has invested over €50 million in these facilities, which operate in nearly every Institute of Technology and university in the country. They typically comprise a number of incubation units, some hot-desking space for prospective entrepreneurs as well as ancillary space, such as meeting rooms and networking areas. There are currently 276 companies in the 21 facilities operational across Ireland, employing over 1,100 people and operating in a range of areas, including software, environmental technologies and digital media. Enterprise Ireland has also rolled out four schemes to support communities to develop locally owned Community Enterprise Centres, (CECs) which have enabled entrepreneurs to establish, provide employment and to grow their businesses in their own locality, by providing a physical and human support network for emerging entrepreneurs and micro-industry. Since the launch of this initiative, €61.4 million has been approved for the development of CECs across the country and this capital investment has facilitated the development of 134 centres, of which 108 have been completed with the balance either under construction or just recently approved. Of the completed centres, the most recent data - from 2009 - shows that they house 901 companies providing employment for 4,870 people. A further 760 companies employing approximately 2,900 people have graduated from the CECs since the first scheme in 1989 due to company expansion. Some 56 of these companies have since become Enterprise Ireland clients and 79 were transferred to the County Enterprise Boards.

Some €2.2 million of funding under the CEC initiative was also channelled towards supporting the work of the Digital Hub Development Agency, the aims of which are to promote and facilitate the development of the digital hub as a location for digital enterprises and related activities. Additionally, support is provided through Enterprise Ireland for the part funding of Business Innovation Centres, which are regionally based support organisations for pre-start-up and start-up enterprises and innovative existing companies. There are four Business Innovation Centres, located in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Waterford, all providing incubation space to assist fledgling businesses start, establish and then to move on, so that vacated space can be used for other new start-up businesses. A key feature of space managed by the Business Innovation Centres is that the start-up company not only gets space, but often also gets free business advice and access to facilities such as meeting rooms with audio visual equipment and to shared services such as a receptionist/telephonist, shared photocopiers and printers. In line with the Government focus on job creation, I will ensure there is a continual focus on the provision of adequate incubation space.