Agency to focus on clients' needs

The core values of Enterprise Ireland, which is being formed from Forbairt, the Irish Trade Board and the industrial training division of FAS, would be founded on clients' needs, the agency's chief executive said yesterday.

Mr Dan Flinter, addressing the Irish Exporters' Association, said the mission for Enterprise Ireland would be to help companies develop competitive advantage abroad, leading to increased sales, exports and employment. "We have got constantly to ask ourselves as we develop our new organisation what solutions can we deliver," he said.

He said the link between companies' performances and job creation had not always been appreciated, but the only basis on which employment was generated was the successful performance of companies penetrating markets, making returns to shareholders and giving employment. The change that the agency faced was one of delivery of solutions rather than a seller of products or programmes. "It will not simply be an agency with a few more services tacked on. It will be a single organisation with a integrated set of solutions to build capability and competitiveness," he said. Enterprise Ireland had to be a "client-facing" organisation, he said, and a big role would be to help companies find technology overseas. Clients had identified a clear, quick level of access and a one-stop shop for finance as their needs.

"We will work with clients on the basis of a shared agenda, the purpose of which is to ensure sales, exports and employment." He added that the most significant feature in exporting was the development of confidence and "a genuine level of self-belief".

"For perhaps far too long we have been, as a country, far too modest in the acknowledgment of success and particularly success on the economic front," he said. Irish companies were now becoming dominant players in niche markets globally, he said, citing the success of Iona Technologies, CBT, and Silicon Systems Design.