Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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239. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide in tabular form the total amount of investment in companies by Enterprise Ireland on a yearly basis since 2011; the total amount of money repaid to Enterprise Ireland during each of those years; the level of impaired debt associated with Enterprise Ireland investments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1117/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland clients are a vital source of direct and indirect employment. Employment data for Enterprise Ireland is collected annually as part of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Annual Employment Survey which measures the number of jobs in Agency assisted client companies. In its “End of Year Statement” published on Monday, January 12, Enterprise Ireland reported that client companies created 19,705 new jobs in 2014. This resulted in a net increase of 8,476 in the total number of people employed by Enterprise Ireland supported companies. Enterprise Ireland’s focus is on the economic benefits that can be achieved through its financial supports. All financial approvals are underpinned by a continued focus on ensuring positive economic impact and value for money for the taxpayer. Enterprise Ireland’s investments have also performed favourably over the years in terms of financial return on the investment.

Enterprise Ireland financially supports a significant number of Irish companies across the company developmental lifecycle by way of equity and grant aid, a high proportion of these being start-ups in an early stage of development. Investing in early stage companies is inherently risky, particularly in the very early stages of company development.

Many of Enterprise Ireland’s early stage companies require substantial funding to develop a final market offering. Enterprise Ireland, when making an investment, will always seek that the company raises matching funding from the private sector or that they invest off their own Balance Sheet to support the particular project or company development. This private sector participation can come from a diverse range of sources of capital and debt.

In order to reduce the investment risk Enterprise Ireland also requires that the private sector’s funding contribution must constitute at least 50% or more of the total funding support. This ensures that the private sector shares a larger proportion of the investment risk. Commercial success however is never guaranteed.

In the case of grant aid, the company has to provide evidence of expenditure on their part before a grant payment is released.

The total amount of income generated through equity gains and grant repayments to Enterprise Ireland (grant refunds, dividends and redemption/sale of shares), over the period 2011 to 2014, amounted to €119m (Table 1).

Enterprise Ireland writes off investments where a company is being liquidated or is being wound up. The average level of impairment (write-offs) associated with Enterprise Ireland equity investments in client companies that fail (based on investment periods of ten years and older) is 21%. Before any investment or grant is written off Enterprise Ireland conducts a thorough due diligence process to ensure that all monies, if any, which are recoverable by Enterprise Ireland, have been recovered.

These impairments can be attributed to companies not achieving market success, in what has been a difficult economic period.

These losses have to be considered within the wider economic and monetary gains generated through the EI equity portfolio. EI continues to actively manage the balance of its portfolio with a view to maximising the economic benefits and the financial return.

Income generated through equity gains and grant repayments to Enterprise Ireland