Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 April 2022
6. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the status of the implementation of the recommendations of the SME task force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18664/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraQuestion No. 6 is being introduced by Deputy Lawless.
This question is on the implications of the recommendations of the small and medium enterprise task force and I ask the Tánaiste or one of his team to update me on the matter.
An SME growth task force of entrepreneurs, business leaders and other stakeholders was established in September 2020 by the Tánaiste to fulfil the commitment made in the programme for Government to draw up an ambitious long-term strategic blueprint for SMEs and entrepreneurs beyond Covid-19. Between September and December 2020, the SME task force, which was assisted by four dedicated subgroups, developed a range of recommendations to build a better business and regulatory environment for our SMEs and entrepreneurs. This work was informed by the comprehensive OECD review of SME and entrepreneurship policy in Ireland of 2019, which provided a hugely informative, objective and deeply-researched evidence base on the challenges and opportunities for the SME and entrepreneurship sector in Ireland. The work of the SME task force resulted in the delivery of the SME and entrepreneurship growth plan in December 2020, which was subsequently published in January 2021.
To ensure that the substance and vision of the growth plan continued to move forward, and to facilitate further detailed analysis of its recommendations, an SME and entrepreneurship implementation group was established in early February 2021. I, along with the Minister of State with responsibility for trade promotion, digital and company regulation, Deputy Troy, chaired the implementation group on behalf of the Tánaiste. The implementation group met on six occasions between February and September last year to discuss progress on thematic areas arising from the recommendations in the SME and entrepreneurship growth plan. As part of these sessions, the implementation group invited participation from Departments and Government agencies responsible for delivery of specific actions to talk us through their plans of action.
This engagement resulted in the identification of ten priority areas where the implementation group felt that significant progress can be made in the shorter term. This list of priorities was discussed in further detail at a specially convened meeting of the SME task force last autumn. These priority areas relate to the following: access to finance; digital transformation; increasing first-time exporters; enhanced assistance for high-potential businesses; clustering and networks; SME management skills; reducing the regulatory burden on SMEs; delivery of a single portal for business information and assistance; ensuring comprehensive enterprise agency coverage for SMEs; and increased SME participation in public procurement.
I am standing in for Deputy Devlin, who is as láthair at the moment with Covid, unfortunately.
One of the items that was reviewed in the report was the export credit insurance scheme, and it is one I am particularly interested in. I believe that one of the deliverables of the task force is to look at ways to motivate the export journey for SMEs. I know the local enterprise centres have always had a focus on export growth as an opportunity for SMEs. However, there is an issue about the export credit insurance scheme. It was planned to monitor, improve and review that over the last year and going forward. However, I am not sure how that is going and I know some concerns have been raised within the industry. The Minister of State might update the House on the progress in that regard.
The Minister of State mentioned the high-performance small companies scheme. There is great opportunity within that for incubators. I know the MERITS hub in Naas in my own constituency has a lot of hot-desking and innovation and that is replicated around the country. I would be very interested in having supports for those types of activities as well.
I will work backwards on the two questions. On the MERITS hub, I totally agree with the Deputy. It is a fabulous investment and I have been on that site twice at this stage. I am glad it featured in the 2019 regional enterprise plan that was launched next door to it in Kildare by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. The new updated regional enterprise plan for the mid-east region is again focused on the importance of MERITS and benefiting from the investment in that. The Deputy will recall that additional money was allocated to the MERITS project over the last year to make sure that we completed and continued the work that is going on there. There is a great team involved in that. It is not just about serving the county of Kildare but serving the region. We are very much committed to that as a Government and as a Department, and we will work with all involved on that because there are key people involved.
The new Enterprise Ireland strategy that was launched a few months ago details the importance of developing more high potential start-ups but also an increase of 20% in the number of companies that are exporting for the first time. That was driven by the SME task force and we will continue to work with Enterprise Ireland to develop that.
There was one other question.
The Minister of State can come back to that in the second reply. I call Deputy Lawless.
Perhaps we can talk about export credit insurance on the second round.
I acknowledge the Minister of State's and the Government’s support for the MERITS hub, along with others around the country. It is a particularly strong centre. It is quite a new development and received very strong support from Kildare County Council when it was launched. I want to credit Joe O’Carroll and all of the team who run the operation there. I visited it myself on a number of occasions when it was getting going. Now that is up and running and post Covid, there is a huge opportunity given that more people will work outside of the large towns and cities. These kinds of co-working innovation centres are even more important now than they ever were. I thank the Minister of State and the Government for their commitment to that. As the House is aware the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, visited not long ago. As I said, there is a great team at work there and it is a model that could be replicated elsewhere.
In his second response, the Minister of State might take the opportunity to update us on the export credit insurance scheme.
That is one I forgot to mention. There has been a review of the export credit insurance scheme under way in the Department for the last year and a half and that report is complete. While I have not had a chance to go through it yet, I believe it is either on my desk or on the way to my desk. It comes under the “access to finance” element of the SME task force. It is something we took a very serious look at because there is a strong case to be made for it but we also have a poor history in that regard, so we wanted to work through it to see if we can benefit Irish exporters by doing that. When I have a chance to look through that report, I will be happy to have a discussion with the Deputy on it in the House. It is something that I, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and the Tánaiste are very focused on. If it is worthwhile and if it is of benefit to Ireland, it is certainly something we will bring through under the SME task force.
