Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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306. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if his attention has been drawn to an internal Enterprise Ireland audit report into the pilot competitive feasibility fund in the south east region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1146/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Following the closure of Talk Talk in Waterford in 2011 and the subsequent significant job losses, the Government formed the South East Area Action Plan to co-ordinate a response to the long standing employment challenges in the city and region. Part of that response included a Pilot Competitive Feasibility Fund for the South East Region which was established by Enterprise Ireland in 2012 with the aim of stimulating start-ups and creating jobs in the South East. The fund was designed to assist a new start-up company or individual entrepreneur to investigate the viability of a new growth orientated business or proposition. A total of 14 companies were approved for funding under the scheme. Five of these have fully completed the study while a further 5 are in the process of completion and the remaining 4 companies have yet to engage fully in the process. Of these 14 companies Enterprise Ireland has already approved further HPSU funding for two of the companies and a third is currently progressing through the HPSU process.

The pilot scheme was reviewed by the Internal Audit Unit of Enterprise Ireland who submitted their report to the Enterprise Ireland Audit Committee in July 2012. The review identified two companies which had received approval for grant aid without meeting fully the employment and sales growth conditions laid out in the scope of the scheme.

The two companies concerned were awarded approximately €10,000 each in support of their feasibility projects subject to expenditure of €20,000 of the companies’ own funds in advance of application to Enterprise Ireland for payment. In both cases the evaluation team deemed the applications to be of sufficiently high quality to be awarded the funding particularly as regards their development and employment potential. While the applications in question did not meet fully all the relevant criteria they did meet all legal based eligibility criteria with regard to awarding of funding by Enterprise Ireland. To date one of the companies has drawn down funding of €10,000.

In the subsequent rollout of the programme clearly defined terms of reference which detail eligibility criteria, clear and transparent evaluation criteria, a new scoring matrix and the involvement of external evaluators have been developed and implemented in the context of the rollout of this scheme to other regions. The new scoring matrix reduces the impact of subjective projections (such as employment and sales) on the final scoring and awarding of funds.

Enterprise Ireland has subsequently rolled out Competitive Feasibility Funds to the North West, North East and Midlands. The lessons learned from the pilot scheme and the audit report have fully informed the more robust procedures and strengthened criteria that are now in place for these schemes.