Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the level of take-up of the development capital scheme in each year since its establishment; the number of jobs supported; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29834/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Development Capital Scheme which is run through a open and competitive process, on foot of key actions under the APJ process has seen total commitments by the State of €75m to three funds. Under the Scheme, commitments were made to MML, BDO and Cardinal Carlyle that will provide equity or quasi equity of between €2m and €12m to established investee companies.

Each of the funds established under the Development Capital Scheme is aimed at providing funding for the mid-sized, mostly export-oriented businesses with clear growth and development prospects. The funds are targeted particularly at manufacturing and technology companies in traditional sectors including engineering, food, life sciences, services and electronics. All of the funds were established in the later parts of 2013 and commenced investment in 2014.

State investment in these funds is on the same terms as the private sector. The investment managers are responsible for making investment decisions within a clearly defined investment strategy over the life time of the fund. All three funds have invested in the Irish market and are looking for new investment opportunities.

Table 1 below breaks down the level of investment in companies under this Scheme on an annual basis to Q1, 2015 and documents the number of actual investments and the number of companies in receipt of investment. There has been further investment activity in Q2 and this will be reported in future following receipt of investment data and quarterly reports.

Table 1 – Investment Data

Table 2 below outlines the economic profile of the companies in receipt of investment as of the year end 2014. A survey to obtain the economic company profiles to the end of Q2, 2015 is currently being prepared.

Table 2 – Economic Profile of Companies Year 2014