Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide the total spend on county development boards on an annual basis from 1992 to 2007. [41528/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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As state agencies under the auspices of my Department, the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) are funded primarily by the exchequer on an existing service level basis each year in line with the requirements of the public estimates process. Funding is broken down between capital and current expenditure.

Capital expenditure covers Measure 1 activities i.e. direct grants to enterprises (Priming Grants, Business Expansion/Development Grants and Feasibility/Innovation Grants) and Measure 2 activities i.e. “soft supports” which include a range of business advice, training and one-to-one mentoring supports, such as Start Your Own Business Programmes, Mentoring Programmes, Management Development Courses, Sales & Marketing Courses, Financial Management Training, e-Commerce and IT Skills Training.

Current expenditure covers administration expenses i.e. pay and non-pay (overhead costs). It should be noted that both the pay and non-pay elements of the current allocation are instrumental to the full delivery of supports services to the micro-enterprise sector as this allocation encompasses staff costs associated with the delivery of general business advice and information to clients.

Total expenditure on an annual basis from 1994 to 2007 is supplied. Please note that 1994 was the first year of actual operational activity by the CEBs.