Vol. 487 No. 4
102 Mr. Bell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to introduce measures to assist small and medium enterprises to increase labour productivity, which she recently estimated at 65 per cent of UK levels for firms with less than ten employees. [4097/98]
The White Paper on human resource development identified the need for increased investment in training as a major issue to be addressed in improving competitiveness in Irish companies.
A number of initiatives are being planned or are already under way to secure an upgrading in the quality of our human resources with a view to reaching the level of best practice in competitor countries, with a resultant increase in labour productivity. For example, an awareness programme on the skills and training needs of Irish industry is being developed to run initally over a two-year period. A programme of training networks is being developed under which State support will be available to groups of firms with a view to developing their own best practice network.
Management training in small enterprises will be a priority for the new company development agency. Furthermore, county enterprise boards will be placing a stronger emphasis on the development of management capability at the micro enterprise level.
I provided an extra £2 million this year for the training support scheme, which has a total budget of £8.625 million. At least three quarters of this expenditure will be allocated to small business.
