Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the level of take up of the development capital scheme in each of the years since its establishment and to date in 2017; the number of jobs supported; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34734/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The establishment of the Development Capital Scheme is a critical action under the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs 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 €2million - €12million.

The Development Capital Scheme forms part of the suite of new finance measures put in place through the Action Plan for Jobs to increase the availability of funding for SMEs. A total of €75million in funding has been made available through my Department for the Development Capital Scheme with the aim of leveraging a minimum total of €150million in additional funding from the private sector.

Through an open and competitive process, Enterprise Ireland has made total commitments of €75m available to three funds. Under the Scheme, commitments were made to 3 funds that will provide equity, quasi equity or debt of between €2m and €12m to established investee companies.

Each of the funds established under the Development Capital Scheme are aimed at providing funding for the mid-sized, mostly export-oriented businesses with clear growth and development prospects.  The Funds target particularly 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 continuing to look for new investment opportunities.

The latest figures available on the Development Capital Scheme in terms of amount of investment and companies supported are at Table 1 (up to end Q1 2017) and employment numbers at Table 2 (up to end 2016) below.

Table 1 – Investment Data

Table 2 – Economic Profile of Companies