Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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249. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on a proposal by an organisation (details supplied). [14914/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I have a deep focus on indigenous enterprises in Ireland. My Department is also keen to review relevant policy and to work towards a new SME policy fit for SMEs in the modern era. Earlier this month, I met with Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurria, here in Dublin, to launch the upcoming collaboration of DBEI and the wider Government with the OECD on the Review of SME and Entrepreneurship issues and policies in Ireland.

This will be a seminal 18-month project which will see a comprehensive review of the SME business ecosystem and policies, using OECD expertise in a structured and defined process.  The resulting recommendations and issues identified by the report will then form the basis of a long term DBEI led SME Strategy for Ireland. Areas covered include taxation, the regulatory environment, productivity challenges and skills and human resource management. It also includes an assessment of the main SME-targeted programme areas, including SME workforce and management skills, internationalisation, financing and innovation. Specific attention will focus on productivity through innovation and digitalisation in SMEs, the ability for Irish SMEs to scale and to internationalise and how SMEs can increase high quality labour retention.

In relation to a wider industrial policy, Enterprise 2025 Renewed was launched on 9th March 2018. The review of our policies was undertaken in light of significant global challenges that include Brexit, international developments in taxation, new policies under US administration and the relentless pace of change driven by advances in technologies. The Review reaffirms our commitment to export-led growth, underpinned by innovation and talent. Enterprise 2025 highlights the need to place a greater emphasis on supporting the establishment and scaling of Irish owned enterprises- a significant proportion of which are SMEs.