Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 March 2017
206. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she continues to promote and support job creation through the small business sector with particular reference to the need to ensure the minimisation of practices likely to impede small businesses; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14675/17]
View answerAs Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, I am consistently focused on supporting job creation. Since 2012, the annual Action Plan for Jobs has delivered actions to support job retention and creation. The unemployment rate has dropped from a high of 15.1% in February 2012 to 6.6 % in February 2017. The figure for the number of people in work has risen from 1,836,000 in Q3 2012 to 2,048,000 in Q4 2016.
We hold structured dialogue with key stakeholders and we advocate across Government to ensure the needs of SMEs are taken into account in the execution of national policy. In 2017, my Department will be developing an SME Test to ensure that policy makers “Think Small First.”
My Department listens to the concerns of the small business sector and actively engages with small businesses and their representative organisations. We have the Advisory Group for Small Business (AGSB) which is chaired by the Minister for Small Business and Employment, Pat Breen TD. This forum and others such as the Retail Consultation Forum and the inter-departmental High Level Group on SME Access to Procurement are there to assist small businesses and show that this Government is willing, and wants to, engage with small business.
The two Departmental developmental agencies dealing with micro, small and medium companies, Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), are targeted with assisting and developing small businesses through the start-up phase and beyond. EI has approximately 5000 clients supporting over 201,000 jobs. The LEOs support over 6,500 companies which employee 32,500 people.
In total, there are over 170 different Government supports for Irish start-ups and small businesses, from a wide variety of Departments and Agencies. All of these supports are included the cross Governmental www.supportingsmes.com portal. By answering the eight quick questions in the Online Tool, a small business will, in one location be able to: find out which of the over 170 Government business supports from 27 different Government Departments, Agencies and Initiatives are available to them; and obtain information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit with small business.
