Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The recently published White Paper on Enterprise sets out the Government's strategy for entrepreneurship and was informed by the SME and entrepreneurship growth plan, which is a strategic blueprint for SMEs and entrepreneurs to start up, scale up and access foreign markets, as well as helping them to navigate the transition to a low carbon, digital economy.

As part of the implementation of the White Paper we will focus our efforts on developing an integrated approach that accelerates start-up growth and scaling and includes access to public and private funding, investment in research and development and innovation, access to skills, an appropriate regulatory environment as well as a tax system that encourages investment in start-ups and scaling.

In response to the Government’s strategic blueprint for entrepreneurship, Enterprise Ireland’s strategy sets out an ambition for Ireland to be a world-leading location to start and scale a business, with a target of a 20% increase in the number of high potential start-ups by 2024. This will be achieved by increasing the number of new entrepreneurs, fast growing start-ups and high potential start-ups across the regions, and by the commercialisation of research and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.

Enterprise Ireland works closely with the local enterprise offices and other entrepreneurship stakeholders and third level institutions, to provide companies of all sizes with a flexible, proactive and support model, responding to their growth and development needs. The White Paper also recognises the expanding role of the local employment offices as the first-stop-shop for guidance, financial assistance, mentoring and training for anyone intending to start or grow a business. This afternoon the Minister and Ministers of State will attend the quarterly meeting of the SME and entrepreneurship stakeholders where issues such as this will be discussed. We will look at new and innovative implementation policies that can be incorporated also.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I absolutely agree with Deputy Bruton that this is vital for the long term and short term in terms of identifying start-ups of all sizes throughout the country that have serious potential. I must give credit in particular to the local enterprise offices throughout the country. I am fortunate to visit them. We see new businesses coming on stream and not only establishing themselves within the first two years but taking on employees also. They move from being a one-person operation to having two or three employees and potentially moving into being Enterprise Ireland clients in their own right.

Some of the areas identified for improvement and more co-ordinated thinking are density, clustering, supporting start-ups of all sizes and focusing on specific geographic regions that lend themselves to providing an environment to allow for increased development and foreign opportunities. Deputy Bruton is right about venture capital and angel capital. It is about looking at venture capitalists and pushing them not only to high-performance opportunities but to all opportunities, particularly with local enterprise office client companies.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I hear what the Deputy is saying and I also recognise his contribution to and experience in this area. To give reassurance, we are not taking anything for granted here. We are assessing the current approach towards a culture of entrepreneurship, start-ups and risk-taking in Ireland, which is needed to continue to generate economic activity and new business all the time. It is one of the reasons that I and the two Ministers of State are spending quite a bit of time around the country, talking to small businesses and listening to them. We had a women in business conference in the last number of weeks to really understand the barriers facing female entrepreneurs. We want to build on the current infrastructure, which works quite well in terms of Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise office, LEO, structures. However, we can continue to ask ourselves if we can do better, specifically in this space, whether that is in the lead-up to budget time or in the broader policy development in this area. Ireland needs to be a leader in terms of being a start-up nation, if you like, and encouraging entrepreneurship and business risk-taking. We need to continue to work on that.