Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 December 2018
65. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which the various bodies under her aegis continue to establish new product manufacturing enterprises, new markets and so on to the extent required to fill the likely vacuum in the aftermath of Brexit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50523/18]
View answerThis question seeks to ascertain the extent to which the various statutory bodies under the Minister's aegis continue to promote manufacturing and services enterprises in various locations throughout the country which utilise, to the best extent possible, modern technology and innovation.
Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices are the main agencies for supporting new start-up businesses across every region. Up to October 2018, 38 companies were supported through the Enterprise Ireland competitive start fund. This year Enterprise Ireland ran nine competitive start fund calls targeting a range of areas of focus, such as international entrepreneurs, graduates, fintech, agritech and female entrepreneurs.
New Frontiers is Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme for innovative and early-stage start-ups. The programme is based in 14 institutes of technology and two participating universities. At the end of October this year, there were 157 entrepreneurs on the programme.
As of July 2018, 56 high potential start-ups have been supported by Enterprise Ireland. The local enterprise offices are providing a range of training programmes to support new businesses, including start your own business and management development courses. Up to 30 November, there were in excess of 27,000 people on local enterprise office training programmes and 3,452 people on start your own business courses.
All of these supports ensure we have a continuous pipeline of start-up businesses which will create jobs throughout the country.
In the course of the promotions which have taken place, has it been shown that there are particular areas where, in the aftermath of Brexit, opportunities are likely to arise or are arising? To what extent can we capitalise on those opportunities? To what extent is it intended to fill those voids in the aftermath of Brexit with competitive, effective and efficient new enterprises?
We are doing much work in supporting firms to prepare for Brexit. We have the €300 million working capital facility for companies, which allows them to borrow over three years at competitive rates. This was announced by me and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
I am bringing through legislation for a €300 million long-term loan scheme which will facilitate loans for between eight to ten years. That will be ready by January 2019.
I have increased funding to IDA Ireland, capitalising on companies which want to come to Ireland as a result of Brexit. Ireland remains an attractive place in which to do business. We have a highly educated workforce and access to a population of 500 million people across the EU.
Arising from the work to date in this area, has it become obvious that there are more opportunities on which we can capitalise? Regardless of what way Brexit goes and its eventual outcome, to what degree is it intended to continue with that aggressive promotion which will result in new enterprise creation?
We continue to support businesses to trade and innovate, as well as look at their productivity and competitiveness. I have just launched the new initiative, Future Jobs, which will help companies to look at investing. We need to bring up the competitiveness of our small and medium-sized enterprise sector, SMEs. Sometimes it is masked by a competitive foreign direct investment sector which has high productivity levels. We need to concentrate on our SMEs because they are the backbone of our enterprise base.
We are also encouraging more companies to invest in research and development. That is important and is one of the mitigating measures for Brexit. We are asking companies to diversify their markets, look at their competitiveness and invest in their research and innovation. It has been found that companies which did invest in innovation actually had a greater likelihood of surviving the last crash. Many of them came through because they had invested in new products.
