The avoidance of deadweight and displacement is critical towards the achievement of best value for the Exchequer's investment in enterprise development. I am not aware of any deterrent to the development of small industry in the boards' guidelines regarding deadweight.
Just a year ago, I informed the 35 county enterprise boards that, in future, they should focus their efforts on the development of manufacturing and internationally traded services projects which, in time, will have the potential to develop into strong export-oriented entities. This strategy is predicated primarily on the potential of and the need for the enterprise boards to become the major upstream source of dynamic and fast growing projects for eventual handover to Enterprise Ireland.
The soon to be published operational programmes for the Border, midlands and western region and the southern and eastern region will re-emphasise the need for greater selectivity by the boards in their financial interventions for mico-enterprise support, particularly against the background of virtually full employment and acute labour shortages.