Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 March 2014
81. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the nature and function of the relationship between Enterprise Ireland and the Dublin Business Innovation Centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14485/14]
View answerThe Business Innovation Centres (BIC’s) are independent companies limited by guarantee and led by boards whose members are mainly from the private sector. There are four BIC’s located throughout the country as follows – Dublin BIC, Cork BIC, South East BIC based in Waterford and Westbic based in Galway.
The BICs were established in 1988 as a European Union initiative and until the end of 1999 the BICs were funded by the EU. Since 2000, EU funding was replaced by Government exchequer funding, which is channelled through and managed by Enterprise Ireland (EI). The four BIC’s currently receive combined core funding of €2.2m per annum.
EI is represented on the Board of each BIC and plans are in place to develop a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with each BIC by the second quarter of 2014.
The BICs operate under their Articles and Memorandum of Association and relevant Company Law provisions. Dublin BIC is licensed by the Central Bank to operate seed capital funds. Dublin, Cork and Waterford BICs are registered charities. (The main advantage to registered charity status is tax designation in that any funds received, including EI funds or donations from any other sources are not taxable). The BIC’s are not subject to FOI.
Each BIC has developed its own networks and relationships within its region. This means that the individual BIC operate in their own way and have a distinct structure which suits their purpose.
Working in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland the BICs help to refine early stage business propositions with HPSU potential and helps the promoter in building an Investor Ready Business Plan. This is a very valuable service in supporting early stage enquiries and start up companies.
DBIC is a joint General Partner/Manager of the AIB Seed Capital Fund in which Enterprise Ireland and AIB Bank plc are Limited Partners under the Seed & Venture Capital Scheme (2007-2012). This fund is one of a number of funds targeting early stage investments in high growth technology companies and is managed by DBIC on behalf of the Limited Partners.
Business Angels have a significant role to play in the start-up ecosystem providing both a source of capital and expertise to investees. In order to improve the access of SMEs to this source of finance Enterprise Ireland funds the Halo Business Angel Partnership in co-operation with InterTrade Ireland. The Partnership network, amongst other things, matches pre-screened investment opportunities in start-up enterprises with registered investors and is managed by the 4 Business Innovation Centres on a regional basis throughout Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford).
DBIC has been part of the Business Angels initiative since its inception in 2005 and Enterprise Ireland has provided funding towards DBICs activities in relation to the matching process. Under the current contract with DBIC, Enterprise Ireland will provide €85,500 p.a. in the period 2013-2014.
The four Irish BIC’s are members of the European Business Network (EBN) (www.ebn.eu) which has over 240 members in 27 EU member states and in 11 other countries and whose aim is to promote and grow the BIC network and to support small and medium sized business. The Irish BICs participate in a number of events and activities including consultancy assignments organised by the EBN network.
