Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 June 2014
10. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress made to date on implementing the report of the Entrepreneurship Forum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23792/14]
View answerThis question is on the report of the Entrepreneurship Forum, which was published in the usual style, as the Taoiseach arrived and did a press conference, high-fived everyone, and told them they were great. That was on 23 January. It is now five and a half months later and we have had nothing. Will the Minister update us on the implementation of the recommendations and where the report is at?
I thank the Deputy for tabling the question. In the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, developing a better environment for entrepreneurship is a key disruptive reform. The work of the Entrepreneurship Forum has been a valuable input to identify areas for fruitful initiative. The Department is developing a national policy statement on entrepreneurship. As part of this process, the forum’s recommendations are being evaluated with input from Departments and agencies. Already, a significant number of initiatives have been taken which respond to the forum’s evaluation.
These include the launch of the local enterprise offices, LEOs, the initiation of a competition to find and to invest in the best young entrepreneurs at local and national level, the creation of a new ICT skills strategy 2014-18, the establishment of Knowledge Transfer Ireland and its online database of innovative ideas, as well as turning those ideas that come from intellectual property through the universities and institutes of technology into new companies. In addition, a review of mentoring is being prepared by Forfás and a review of tax supports is under way for entrepreneurs. The initiatives also include an assessment of how the agencies in the Department can deliver targeted improvements in the environment for business, particularly for start-ups, and the preparation of a strategy statement 2014-16 by Enterprise Ireland with new ambitions for high-potential start-ups. There is a strong belief that the start-ups area offers huge opportunity for enhanced performance and jobs growth by the Irish enterprise sector and the Government is determined to facilitate this through a national policy statement on entrepreneurship.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. He can imagine the frustration of business people and entrepreneurs who are successful, who have created jobs, who have taken the risk and who put their valuable time, which they do not really have, into producing a report. The report was presented in a clear and cogent manner and there is no rubbish associated with it. However, they now are being told their views are being assessed. These are people who have walked the walk. This concerns the frustration of the business community in respect of getting involved in a project like this. The proposals probably now are being assessed by numerous interdepartmental committees in the traditional sense. Is there not an argument for implementing the report, given that the recommendations come from people who know what they are talking about and who have the experience?
I have a number of specific queries in this regard. One recommendation was that sharing of maternity leave would be allowed between partners. However, this proposal was voted down by Government parties when Fianna Fáil introduced a Bill on this issue last year. Second, the report by the Entrepreneurship Forum was scathing in its remarks on personal guarantees and their use in lending. However, the pillar banks are still using and frankly abusing personal guarantees. Third, there was a specific recommendation that Ireland could become a European trade hub for China. What has happened since January to further this recommendation? In particular, I am anxious to ascertain what additional resources are being committed in the context of the remarks made earlier by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, regarding new IDA and Enterprise Ireland personnel. Have additional personnel been assigned to China to achieve the aim of enabling Ireland to become a European trade hub?
Many of the recommendations made actually cut across measures that are being implemented anyway. It is unfair to suggest that the Government is not engaging proactively with the recommendations. It acknowledges wholeheartedly the role played by the chairman and individual members in bringing forward these recommendations. I can tell the Deputy that, internally, there is no sense of lethargy about engaging properly. However, he must acknowledge that if one is to take all the recommendations, of which there are at least 69, one must have some sort of process to ensure the State agencies can respond and that there is an interdepartmental response.
As I outlined already in my initial reply, the Government has launched the local enterprise offices, which will cut across a lot of the recommendations made. Similarly, the ICT skills strategy will cut across a lot of the recommendations that were made, as will the review by Forfás on mentoring. Consequently, there is no sense that the Department is not engaging with the recommendations. I assure the Deputy and those people who have been in contact with the Deputy and who may have expressed concerns that the Government is absolutely and utterly intent on ensuring that the national policy statement will reflect the views put forward and the recommendations proposed.
I will come back to the Minister of State after a further supplementary question from Deputy Calleary.
While I genuinely acknowledge the Minister of State's response, the greatest threat to entrepreneurship is an interdepartmental committee. Any sense of entrepreneurship or ambition tends to get parked and choked within such a committee. Were there a commitment that this matter is being dealt with and led at ministerial level and that the Minister of State, together with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, intend to drive on this report themselves rather than parking it in the Amazonian wilderness of many interdepartmental committees, I might then have some faith in the process.
I did not answer the question on the number of people who have been assigned. A number of people have been appointed through Enterprise Ireland in Asia, comprising ten new people across Asia. I can get a specific figure for the Deputy in respect of China.
To my mind, the interdepartmental approach works quite rapidly at present. If one examines again the recommendations made in the Entrepreneurship Forum report, it is evident that the Government is moving rapidly and actually was ahead of some of the recommendations in respect of outcomes, particularly, for example, with regard to the higher level sector where there is a strong move towards ensuring that research works in a way that turns those good ideas into good jobs. The Government has created Knowledge Transfer Ireland and has ensured there are more post-doctoral and PhD programmes. For instance, there are specific arrangements pertaining to the Irish Research Council on having more enterprise-facing PhD programmes. That is one recommendation that already is under way. The point must be made that while the Government acknowledges the recommendations and is working towards meeting them, it will reflect these outcomes through the national policy statement.
