Vol. 504 No. 5
37 Mr. Wall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she has satisfied herself that adequate preparations are being made by business and industry to allow them to deal with the year 2000 bug; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12231/99]
43 Mr. Naughten asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make a statement on the most recent Enterprise Ireland survey regarding the preparedness of small companies with particular reference to the threat that large companies will delist small company suppliers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12260/99]
86 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make a statement on the most recent Enterprise Ireland survey regarding the preparedness of small companies with particular reference to the threat that large companies will delist small com pany suppliers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12352/99]
93 Mr. Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to introduce legislation to protect suppliers of technology by limiting the terms of year 2000 related law suits; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12447/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 37, 43, 86 and 93 together.
As Minister with responsibility for the business awareness campaign in relation to the year 2000 computer problem, I have been actively involved with this issue for some time now and I am personally disappointed with the level of preparation by some business sectors.
The first phase of the awareness campaign involved the distribution of over 100,000 brochures and the organisation of regional meetings around the country last year. This was followed by the current Enterprise Ireland information campaign, which has involved a whole range of activities geared towards getting the small and medium sized companies to take urgent remedial action. To date a total of about £400,000 has been spent on these efforts.
Despite all of this work, the level of action by small and medium sized companies has been poor. While the recent survey undertaken as part of the Enterprise Ireland campaign showed many positive trends, it has revealed that many companies do not regard this very important issue as a priority and the level of action falls far short of what is required to avoid business problems later.
For this reason I have decided that the next phase of the Enterprise Ireland campaign will target the sectors which have been least responsive to date, particularly smaller business outside the Dublin area. I was also pleased to announce last week that agreement has been reached with FÁS to provide training grants to firms through its training support scheme in respect of courses on the year 2000 issue.
As I have stated on many occasions previously, this is a matter on which businesses themselves must take action. While the State has initiated an intensive awareness campaign, the process of actually taking steps to become compliant is entirely a matter for individual businesses and the consequences of their not doing so have been well publicised.
One of the risks facing companies which do not become compliant is that they may be delisted as suppliers to bigger companies. From the larger company's standpoint, this is an understandable commercial reaction to protect themselves from possible disruption to their supply chain. If companies decide to set such a condition, this would be a business matter between them and their sub-suppliers.
