The government has agreed at cabinet to establish a new Oireachtas committee with the special purpose of conducting a banking inquiry.

On the Public Accounts Committee, I represented Fine Gael on a sub-committee tasked with drafting a roadmap for holding a public banking inquiry. This 300 page document explains what we already know, identifies the gaps in our knowledge and poses 276 questions that need to be answered. It also lays out the process of such an investigation in the necessary phases. This report can be accessed here.

The PAC will not be tasked with holding the coming banking inquiry.

This week it was announced that:

– the inquiry will be conducted under the Government’s recently enacted Oireachtas inquiries legislation;

– the inquiry will be carried out by a dedicated Joint Oireachtas Committee to be established for that purpose;

– the Committee will be chaired by Deputy Ciaran Lynch and be composed of 7 T.D.s and 2 Senators;

– a motion to establish the inquiry will be put before the Dáil on Tuesday 6 May 2014, with the committee moving immediately to draft proposals for its terms of reference.

I have put my name forward to An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to sit on this special committee.

A number of times over the past twelve months I have raised the issue of peer-to-peer financing in the Dáil, most recently when speaking on the dissolution of county enterprises (you can watch here).

Today, LinkedFinance were in the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs to make a presentation on what they do and the current state of the Irish peer-to-peer financing market.

You can watch my questioning and contribution here.

What is Peer-to-Peer Financing?
Peer-to-peer lending is an alternative financing model to bank lending, where a high number of small lenders lend start-up or expansion capital to small business on-line. Individual lenders typically finance €100-€200 of a €30,000 loan, competing over rates of return in an auction-style market place. The borrower then chooses the preferred rate. The peer-to-peer facilitator manages the market, manages the blended rate, and manages the monthly direct debit payments to the lenders. The borrower gets a low rate loan, the lender gets high interest on their savings. The default rate is lower than 1%.

In 2013, 10% of lending to SMEs in the UK was through peer-to-peer financing. The UK government provides tax relief for those lending this way, as well as a £20million government investment in successful auctions.

LinkedFinance is a peer-to-peer financing platform; originally an Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up. As of January 2014 they have already helped 51 Irish SMEs to raise an average of €28,000 each and create 150 new jobs.

The Government has launched a new €175million Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018 aimed at providing additional funding for high-growth Irish companies with the potential to generate large amounts of additional export sales and create new jobs.

Today the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD issued the first call for Expressions of Interest from venture capital funds seeking investment, and advertisements will appear in newspapers from this weekend. Minister Bruton is targeting an additional €525million in funding from the private sector, which will mean a total of €700million available for investment over the lifetime of the Scheme. It is expected that the average initial venture investment in a company made by the funds targeted under this call could be of the order of €2million.

This first call for expressions of interest will see Enterprise Ireland committing up to €100m to venture capital funds targeting investment in the wider ICT and life sciences sectors. It is expected that over the lifetime of the scheme it will benefit hundreds of Irish companies, generate tens of millions of euros in additional export sales and create thousands of jobs. Further expressions of interest will be issued over the next two years.

The Scheme is part of a series of new funding mechanisms put in place by this Government, which will make available a total of more than €2billion in additional non-bank lending for Irish businesses:

· €850million through three SME funds from the NPRF

· €450million credit guarantee scheme

· €90million micro-finance scheme

· €225million development capital scheme

· €10million international start-up fund

· €120million second call under Innovation Fund Ireland

Today’s announcement marks the delivery of a key commitment under Action Plan for Jobs 2013.

Further details on the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme click here.

For more information on the Governments Action Plan for Jobs click here.

Eoghan with Brazilian entrepreneur, Bel Pesce, founder of Lemon.ie, when she visited Dublin earlier this year.

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr Richard Bruton TD, today announced the establishment by Enterprise Ireland of a €250K Competitive Feasibility Fund aimed at stimulating high potential business start-ups by female entrepreneurs.

The fund will be open for applications from Tuesday 17th of July 2012 until 4th of September 2012. This initiative is part of a drive by Enterprise Ireland to boost the number of innovative, export-oriented business being led and set up by female entrepreneurs.

Today’s announcement marks the delivery of a key measure under the Action Plan for Jobs 2012, and is aimed at supporting growth in female entrepreneurship.

The Female Entrepreneurship Competitive Feasibility Fund is designed to assist female entrepreneurs to investigate the viability of a new growth orientated business that can succeed in global markets.

The focus is on developing new businesses that can move beyond the domestic market and demonstrate real potential for internationalisation. The closing date for applications is 4h September 2012, and successful applicants will be notified by the end of September.

Making the announcement, Minister Bruton said:   “A key part of the Government’s plan for jobs and growth is encouraging more businesses to start-up, grow, and create jobs. In Ireland we currently have a relatively low level of female entrepreneurs, so by targeting a substantial increase in that number we can make a real difference to the overall level of entrepreneurial activity in Ireland. For example, Australia is often cited as an example of international best practice in this area – if we had the same level of female entrepreneurship in Ireland as in Australia, we would have over 34,000 extra entrepreneurs running businesses which they started in Ireland. They could potentially create a lot of extra jobs.

“Today’s announcement that we are targeting this €250,000 fund specifically at start-up companies led by women is a start in addressing this challenge. The Taoiseach has set the ambition of making Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business by 2016 – ensuring that more women get involved in starting businesses is a key part of this”.

Commenting on the announcement, Julie Sinnamon, Enterprise Ireland Director for Global Business Development, said; ‘The development of early stage high potential start up businesses is core to Enterprise Ireland’s role in developing sustainable export oriented companies.  This fund is directed at supporting an important group of female entrepreneurs to expand their business horizons and set up innovative export focussed companies that can win business abroad and create jobs at home.  It is about giving them a vital injection of funding and support when they most need it’.

Further Enterprise Ireland initiatives and supports for emerging female led enterprises will be announced via a national awareness campaign over the coming months.

Full details of the Fund including the Application Form are available on the Enterprise Ireland web site:

www.enterprise-ireland.com/femaleentrepreneurship

The closing date for applications is 4th September 2012.

Last week I put Parliamentary Questions to Minsters on a number of issues. Among the questions put to the various Departments were: to ask the Minister for Environment about incentivising the purchase of electric cars, asking the Minister for Justice about applications for the Entrepreneur and Investment Visa Schemes and to ask Ministers how many staff were in their respective redeployment pools.

For a full list of Parliamentary Questions put to Ministers, click here.

Today, during the Dail debate on the Microenterpirse Loan Fund Scheme, I spoke on the importance of the Technology Visa; a specific visa for people working in the Tech sector, and the impact such a scheme would have on generating employment in Ireland.

You can watch my contribution here.

I also put Parliamentary Questions on this subject to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, see here, and the Minister for Justice, here.

Last Friday (22nd June), the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation published the Microenterprise Loan Fund Scheme. The Bill, which will be debated in the Dail this week, will see over €90 million in additional lending being made available to 5,500 micro-enterprises which is expected to create 7,700 jobs over 10 years.

The Scheme will initially facilitate €40 million to businesses employing not more than 10 people over the next five years, with provision for the scheme to be extended to provide an additional €50 million of lending over a further five years. Start-ups, sole traders and existing microenterprises will be eligible to apply for a loan under the Scheme.

The scheme is designed to provide loans, up to the value of €25,000,  for commercially viable proposals that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by banks, such as the absence of collateral.

For more information on the Microenterprise Loan Fund Scheme, click here.

Last week I put Parliamentary Questions to Minsters on a number of issues. Among the questions put to the various Departments were: to ask the Minister for Environment for details of those on a salary of over €100,000 in Donegal County Council; to ask the Minister for Finance to reconsider the criteria for the Cash Accounting Scheme for businesses  and to ask the Minister for Finance for details of the people appointed to the NAMA Advisory Group and their activities.

For a full list of Parliamentary Questions put to Ministers, click here.

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