Written Answers. - County Enterprise Boards.
Desmond J. O'Malley
Question:
36
Mr. O'Malley
asked the
Minister for Enterprise and Employment
his views on whether the £18.75 million being allocated to 35 county and city enterprise boards in 1996 represents good use of taxpayers money; and his views on the Culliton report recommendation that our job creating agency structures require streamlining.
[13652/96]
This question relates to two separate but related matters — whether financial allocations to the county and city enterprise boards represent a good use of taxpayers money and, more generally, whether current institutional arrangements for the delivery of Government job creation policy are appropriate. I propose to address these questions in turn.
As regards the sum of £18.75 million mentioned by the Deputy as having been allocated to the county and city enterprise boards in the current year, I should point out that this consists of an aggregate £14 million in small enterprise grant approval capacity, and £4.5 million in respect of projected expenditure on indirect supports to small enterprise development, including the provision of business advice and counselling, mentoring services, assistance with management development, and the promotion of an enterprise culture at local level. I am satisfied that these allocations are required to enable the boards in the current year to discharge the broad responsibilities for local enterprise promotion assigned to them by the Government, and under the Local Enterprise Sub-Programme of the EU Operational Programme for Local Urban and Rural Development, 1994 to 1999, and that they represent good use of taxpayers' money.
A review of the operation of the county enterprise boards as part of the brief of the external evaluator appointed under the Operational Programme has now commenced. This review will be undertaken at two levels; assessing the progress achieved at the overall level of the Local Enterprise Sub-Programme of the Operational Programme; this will be complemented by review activity undertaken by each county enterprise board. The review will examine the success of the boards in achieving the aggregate quantitative and legislative targets set out in the operational programme and in the enterprise plans prepared by each board. This review will also contribute to the mid-term review to be carried out under the community support framework. The key areas of job creation, and the sustainability of the jobs created, will be most carefully assessed and monitored to ensure that public funding allocated to this area continues to be deployed efficiently and to the greatest effect.
On the question of streamlining our job creation agencies, I assume that this refers to the option of consolidating the functions in this area in national bodies smaller in number and more generally focused than the range of initiatives currently active in the area. The policy of the present as well as the previous Government has been to accentuate the specialised approach to enterprise development policy, principally through the establishment of the separate remits of Forbairt and IDA Ireland in the industrial development sphere, and the establishment of the county enterprise boards to address the problems of enterprise development at local level. I do not believe that it would be useful or productive at this time to reverse this policy. For example, any move to discount the initiative, energy and enthusiasm which have been harnessed by the county enterprise boards at local level through a transfer of responsibility for local enterprise development activity to a national agency could deprive the enterprise development effort of those clear benefits, and would run counter to sentiments expressed by many Members of the Oireachtas.
Current organisational arrangements for the promotion of employment through enterprise are, of course, kept under ongoing review by my Department. I am also most anxious that the greatest possible complementarity is achieved in the operations of national and local enterprise development initiatives to ensure that the resources available for this purpose are optimally employed. Complementary operational practice between the national agencies and local initiatives is therefore strongly encouraged. The county strategy groups, established under the Department of the Taoiseach, are an example of an institutional instrument with the specific objective of securing such complementarity at local level.
