Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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277. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the supports in place to offer follow up support for new small business enterprises; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20264/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs 2013 contains a number of policy actions to assist the development of indigenous enterprise, including small businesses such as:

-Increasing the number of businesses trading online for the first time, particularly small businesses;

-Measures to improve access to finance;

-Driving entrepreneurship and start-up companies;

-Assisting indigenous businesses to grow - to include driving the implementation of a Global Sourcing Strategy targeting the procurement of an additional €500m of domestically sourced goods and services by FDI companies in Ireland. This initiative is being driven by a joint senior management team from Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland; and

-Maximising access to Public Procurement opportunities for SMEs.

The Enterprise Development Agencies of my Department, in particular Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs), provide a suite of programmes to assist companies to develop their enterprises and support both start up and established businesses. All companies eligible for support from the Agencies have the same access to State services regardless of their location or status. Further information on the supports available from EI and the CEBs are available on their websites and .While grant support is focussed in the main, on the manufacturing and internationally-traded sectors, for reasons of the potential for deadweight and displacement, many locally trading, established firms can avail of soft supports, such as mentoring and training, etc. I would encourage all eligible enterprises to establish and maintain contact with Enterprise Ireland and/or the CEBs as appropriate.

Since coming into office, this Government has demonstrated its determination to fundamentally address the challenge of supporting micro and small businesses. For example, we have introduced the Microenterprise Loan Fund and the Credit Guarantee Scheme to assist both new and established businesses in gaining access to finance.

I am currently in the process of reforming the national micro and small business support infrastructure by dissolving the City and County Enterprise Boards and establishing new Local Enterprise Offices that will operate from within Local Authorities, but with clear oversight by Enterprise Ireland. To this end, a new Microenterprise Division has been established within Enterprise Ireland and this will become the national Centre of Excellence for supporting micro and small businesses, benchmarked to international standards.

This fundamental reform offers the opportunity to revisit and refocus national policy in relation to the micro and small business sector with a view to ensuring that the State supports are properly targeted at that sector and that the LEOs become a “First Stop Shop” for micro and small businesses for the range of supports available across the system.

The LEOs will engage will all local businesses and will offer a range of soft supports to those that are locally trading with a viable business proposition, including help with applying for a Microfinance Loan. They will also be well positioned to assist in the early identification of start-ups with the best potential to move into the Enterprise Ireland client portfolio.