Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the supports available to small to medium sized enterprises in complying with regulatory issues and in acquiring finance in view of the fact that the provision of such support will enable such persons to concentrate on developing and expanding their business with a view to protecting existing jobs and creating new ones. [17988/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government recognises that small and medium sized companies are a key component of the Irish economy and the backbone of employment in Ireland. My Department and its agencies has already achieved a 25% reduction in administrative burdens on business, and continues to seek avenues to reduce burdens even further.

The High Level Group on Business Regulation, which is chaired by my colleague John Perry, T.D. Minister for Small Business, engages with business directly and hears first-hand about the issues affecting the Irish economy. The Group is currently progressing a number of priority of issues as part of its 2013 Work Programme.

An initiative which I believe has proven to be useful to business is the businessregulation.ie portal which was launched in June 2012. This portal arose from the need to communicate better with business. Its purpose is to help business, especially SMEs, identify the main regulations which affect their activities, to assist them in navigating through the complex regulatory landscape and to provide a centralised place for links to the relevant agencies and their guidance, tools and contact points. The portal has already had over 75,000 pageviews and more than 13,000 unique visitors, since launch, and publicity and awareness work is continuing during 2013, including by means of joint business events organised with the regulators and agencies included on the portal.

The Government is also currently working on an integrated licensing system to help SME retailers apply for all of their annual licencing requirements at a single time via a single portal. The new Integrated Licensing Application Portal for retailers will provide significant savings in terms of time and costs for businesses and entrepreneurs across Ireland through the simplification of the process for applying for multiple licences. This will help business competitiveness and will ultimately protect and create more jobs. The new licensing system will be developed for the retail sector in the first instance by the end of 2013 and rolled out to other sectors of the economy thereafter. It is one of the Government’s Disruptive Reforms in the Action Plan for Jobs 2013.

In relation to SMEs acquiring finance, one of the actions contained in the Action Plan for Jobs 2013 is to “promote awareness and understanding of the full range of Government supported funding programmes and incentives in place to meet the financing needs of the SME sector, including through online resources....”. To this end, the Department of Finance has produced a table of State financial supports. This table includes the Government body responsible for the financial support, a description of the support and a link to the relevant webpage. This table will be reviewed on an on-going basis and is available at http://banking.finance.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/State-Financial-Support-for-SMEs.pdf.

The Government has set the pillar banks’ lending targets so that they rise incrementally with expected demand, with targets of €4bn in 2013, increased from €3.5bn in 2012. Both banks met the targets for 2012. To ensure information on the demand side is accurate and up to date, the Department of Finance continues to conduct bi-annual surveys of SMEs to assess credit demand and loan approval rates.

My Department has recently introduced two targeted schemes to support an additional flow of credit into the economy, namely the Microenterprise Loan Fund and the Credit Guarantee Scheme. Other initiatives assisting business in this respect include the Development Capital Fund, Innovation Fund and specialist NPRF funds for the SME sector.

My Department is working closely with the Department of Finance and the Credit Review Office to evaluate evidence on credit availability and to ensure that the amount of credit flowing to the SME sector is maximised to facilitate sustainable job creation and retention.