Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 301: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on cost benefit to the economy of the establishment of a €300 million job retention fund to subsidise employees small and medium enterprises; and if so, the details of same. [21882/11]

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Job creation and retention is central to our economic recovery and the Programme for Government has job creation at its core. The role of my Department is to ensure that we have the right policies to support enterprise and innovation so that quality employment opportunities can be grown and maintained. It is only by creating the right environment for businesses to expand that we will see new jobs coming on stream. On 10 May, the Government launched a €500m Jobs Initiative which has the objective of:

restoring confidence in the economy, both internationally and domestically, ·supporting the maintenance of existing jobs, and facilitating the creation of new ones, · improving the business environment and assisting people to get back to work.

Many of these measures have already been brought into effect, including the reduction of VAT on restaurant and catering services, hotel and holiday accommodation and various entertainment services; the halving of the lower rate of employer's PRSI on earnings up to €356 per week; the launch of the National Internship scheme; and the focusing of the State's capital expenditure towards more employment-intensive projects in the areas of education, local and regional roads and sustainable transport projects.

The Jobs Initiative also made commitments to introduce a Loan Guarantee scheme and a Microfinance Start up Fund, to improve access to finance for businesses. My Department is currently working on developing these schemes and my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation expects to be in a position to announce details of the schemes within the next six months.

The Programme for Government also outlines a number of measures, which the Government will take to assist small and medium enterprises with a view to maximising their potential in the context of economic recovery. These measures will build on the existing enterprise supports available to small businesses through the City and County Enterprise Boards and Enterprise Ireland. All of the measures I have outlined – along with other commitments in the Programme for Government - will contribute to facilitating job creation and retention.