Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 February 2012
31 Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if additional revenue or capital moneys will be made available to his Department to implement the recommendations of the action plan for jobs. [11309/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe measures in the Action Plan for Jobs 2012 will be met from existing resources, as provided for in the annual Estimates process. The funding for my Department for 2012 was agreed in tandem with the preparation of the Action Plan. As part of the Estimates negotiations, I secured an increase in capital funding for enterprise development and support this year, resulting in the highest ever annual capital budget for my Department of €514 million.
The reality of the financial situation in which we find ourselves is that we must do more with the resources available to us, find innovative ways of leveraging funds and new ways of delivering on our job creation priorities. For example, in the Action Plan, we are finding innovative ways of using Government policy to improve access to finance for businesses by guaranteeing bank lending to viable small and medium sized enterprises through the temporary Partial Credit Guarantee scheme. We are using Government policy to encourage job-creation by carefully targeting supports, reducing costs and red tape, and removing other barriers to job-creation.
We are using Exchequer funding to leverage private sector investment. In the case of my own Department:
The State's investment of €50 million for the Development Capital Scheme will leverage up to €150 million in new funding for mid-sized, high-growth, indigenous companies.
The investment of €10 million in the Microfinance Fund will leverage up to €100 million in new funding for micro-enterprises.
The second call under the Innovation Fund Ireland for investment in small Irish-based tech companies is worth approximately €60 million, with the possibility of leveraging multiples of this sum from private investment.
The Temporary Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme is expected to provide over €100 million in new lending to small and medium-sized businesses by the banking sector.
We will seek to replicate this type of approach across Government to maximise the potential impact of Exchequer investment to support the creation of jobs.
