Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

237. 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 she will make a statement on the matter. [15287/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The establishment of the Development Capital Scheme is a critical action under the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs process and has the objective of increasing the availability of risk capital and closing the ‘equity gap’ experienced by SMEs seeking risk capital in the region of €2 million to €12 million. Such a measure, in tandem with the many other actions contained in the annual Action Plan for Jobs process, have helped over 125,000 people back in to work since the first Action Plan has launched in February 2012.

The Development Capital Scheme which is run through an 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 with the aim of leveraging a minimum total of €150 million in additional funding from the private sector.

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 for 2014 and 2015 and documents the number of actual investments and the number of companies in receipt of investment.

Table 1 – Investment Data

Table 2 below outlines the economic profile of the companies in receipt of investment as of the year end 2015.

Table 2 – Economic Profile of Companies

Year 2015