New Govt Scheme To Support Growing Irish Companies Launched

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton T.D. today launched the €150 million Development Capital Scheme and issued a call to Fund managers to signal their interest in establishing Funds to invest in Irish SMEs. The announcement was made at a briefing for the financial services community in the IFSC on the Action Plan for Jobs.

Under the new fund, the Government through Enterprise Ireland will invest a total of €50million in two Funds with the target of leveraging a further €100m from the private sector. The announcement of the call represents the delivery of a major commitment in Action Plan for Jobs 2012.

The Development Capital Scheme is aimed at addressing a funding gap for mid-sized, high-growth, Irish businesses with significant prospects for growth and job-creation. This Scheme will increase the availability of risk capital for Irish medium-sized enterprises engaged in manufacturing and technology, as well as high-growth trading services companies in Ireland – in specific sectors including engineering, food, life sciences, and electronics. The typical companies that are expected to benefit are in the range 60-160 employees.

This Scheme forms part of a suite of new measures being rolled out to improve access for credit as part of Action Plan for Jobs 2012:

•Micro-finance scheme for micro-enterprise

•Temporary partial loan guarantee scheme for SMEs

•Development Capital Scheme for mid-sized companies, primarily in traditional industries

•Innovation Fund Ireland for high-tech companies

Making the announcement at a briefing attended by members of the financial services community, Minister Bruton said: "A key part of this Government’s plan for growth and job-creation is building a powerful engine of indigenous enterprise. Our ambition must not only be to attract the next Google or Microsoft to Ireland, but to develop and grow the next Google or Microsoft in Ireland.

"Through the Action Plan for Jobs, we will implement a range of measures to ensure that indigenous businesses, which employ the large majority of people in this country, have access to the supports they need in order to start-up and grow in the way we need them to. One key aspect of this is access to finance – we must not only ensure that the banks restart lending in the normal way, but also implement a series of measures targeted at sectors with potential for high levels of employment growth.

"In Ireland, in contrast to many other countries, we have a shortage of large indigenous companies in manufacturing, technology and services. Mid-sized, high-growth Irish companies in these sectors often do not grow to their potential for various reasons – one of which is a lack of access to the right kind of finance. Ensuring that these companies can continue to grow and create jobs in Ireland is a crucial part of the Government’s job-creation strategy, and the €150million Development Capital Scheme will play a crucial role in this."

(CD)