THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW/Mary Coughlan, Tanaiste, Minister for Enterprise, Trade, Employment:FOR SOMEONE with a penchant for plain speaking, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment seems more than comfortable with the more esoteric aspects of her brief.

She has her own clear view of the great shibboleth of recent years: innovation and its central place in policy. It seems no Government speech, document or report is complete without liberal referencing of the word. "Innovation . . . can be a process, can be a technology, can be something that takes out cost, makes something more energy efficient. What you have to do is create the climate for that to happen. By supporting them [ innovators], mentoring them, proving funding to them, access to academia all of that," she declaims.

It's an assured performance, but the Tánaiste bristles at the suggestion that she took longer than might be expected to get to grips with her brief.

"It has, and I will tell you why!" she responds firmly. "I never purported to know everything, which is why I have listened and learnt."

She lists off her recent engagements to prove the point. The previous night had been spent meeting some 127 people at an Enterprise Ireland event in Switzerland; last week she met 17 companies in the US and in two weeks she heads to the Gulf with 60 Irish companies in tow.

All of this has informed a set of priorities which Coughlan outlined at a speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce last month, but which got lost in the aftermath of the Budget. Innovation, as might be expected, got six mentions, but the top-line message was deriving tangible economic benefits from the vast sums of taxpayers' money spent on R&D and support to industry.

Coughlan may be clear in her own mind on where she is going from a policy perspective, but the current economic climate means that problems rather than policy are likely to dominate her tenure in enterprise and employment.

The most pressing problem confronting her is the growing pressure on business as a result of the credit crunch. Next comes Fás. Things seem to be going wrong at the worst possible moment for what is arguably the most important front-line agency in a climate of falling unemployment.

Coughlan's hope is that the banks themselves will proffer a solution to the credit problem, primarily by accessing funds available at the European Investment Bank for this purpose.

"We would be very anxious that the banks press ahead with getting access to money specifically ringfenced for the SMEs because if we are going to have economic sustainability for some of these companies as well as economic growth opportunities for them - and there are plenty of companies out there that are growing - then access to credit is hugely important to them."

While a more responsible approach by the banks to lending in general is welcome, it would be a mistake if this extended to denying credit to good businesses, she says.

"I would be pressing upon the banks to do that [accessing EIB funds] and have been speaking to the Minister [ for Finance] to get that message across to them.

"It's not that the country has stopped . . . and that message has to get across as well . . . people have to do business and it's incumbent on the banks to support their customers.

"Companies who are secure, and who have good balance sheets and who have good opportunities and a good track record, in my view should be supported."

But what if the banks don't or can't play ball? Their priority at the moment appears to be their own survival.

"I would be saying to the Minister [ for Finance] that it is my hope that in the national interest and on the basis pro forma of the nation supporting and guaranteeing the banks that there would be a quid pro quo to the people that are driving the economy."

And if this moral pressure does not work? "Then we would have to discuss that within the confines of cabinet in terms of what could be done to leverage cash to support these people . . . I would hope that would not be the situation."

Many commentators have argued that the Government should invest directly in the banks, both to underpin them and in order to give them the capital they need to resume lending to business. It is is clearly not an option that finds favour with Government.

"We have to have the financial wherewithal to do it in the first place and we are in fairly strict and difficult financial circumstances ourselves," she says.

And she makes clear it's a decision that is being led by the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan.

"All these things are discussed on a regular basis and I know from talking to him [ Lenihan] fairly recently that his view is that that is not where we are at this moment in time . . . other options would need to be considered before you would ever consider going down that route."

And would the extent to which banks are extending credit to business be a factor in any such considerations?

"You have to be very careful. That is dictating to the banks to do something and we are not in the business of running the banks. But I think when Brian [ Lenihan] appoints the new people [public interest directors to the banks] they will be very cognisant of the national interest as well as the banking interest and I think that is perhaps a more measured way of looking at it."

Outside of that Coughlan is not averse to the idea of some sort of State funds for small business. Nothing is on the table but "it's an idea that I have floated on the basis that I need a resolution for business", she says.

Turning to Fás, it appears that Government patience is wearing thin with the agency which has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Internal audit reports have made their way into the public domain in recent months, highlighting concerns about internal control at the agency with its €1 billion budget, and also its processes for dealing with the issues.

The Public Accounts Committee is looking into the matter, but Coughlan says that she now wants the Comptroller and Auditor General to look into it and establish what happened.

"I need my answers now because I have to run and manage the situation," she says.

"I am not happy, I don't like a situation where an organisation that has a huge job to do over the couple of years will in any way be distracted from that. There are a lot of people who work for Fás and I don't want them to be in a situation where they feel uncomfortable about what is going on.

"I am not allowing it to fester, I think it's unfair to a lot of people."

The Tánaiste skirts the issue of whether the board of the state agency has failed in its role as her representative. She responds instead in more general terms about her demand for more interaction between her department and the various State agencies in her purview.

She also refuses to be drawn on the issue of whether the matter can be resolved without personnel changes at the agency. "I don't want to get into personalities. I think the focus is where does Fás need to position itself now."

Another agency coming under scrutiny - for different reasons - is the Competition Authority. It is to be merged with the three-year-old National Consumer Agency in a move that Coughlan says makes sense.

It will make the authority more accountable to consumers, she argues. She also hints at further changes to competition law and the remit of the agency.

She wants to see a link between competition policy and an employment policy which is built around Ireland having a global reputation for business. In this scenario competition policy should not stand in the way of the development of Irish businesses of a scale that can compete internationally.

"What competition law is going to determine as real competition is something which is going to have to be carefully looked at. In other words, we have to allow ourselves to scale up and be more competitive," she says, offering up further evidence that she has been doing her policy homework over the last six months.

But is seems inevitable that her performance will be measured by by job losses and gains. And there can be no doubt that there will be plenty of bad days, including the probability that Dell, one of the State's flagship inward investment projects, will be significantly restructured on her watch.

It has been widely reported and not denied that the group is considering exiting manufacturing, which would at best mean the group's Limerick plant, employing 3,000, is sold to a contract manufacturer, or at worst is closed.

Coughlan is understandably circumspect, but there is little about the body language to indicate a happy ending to the story.

"We are very concerned but at the same time the IDA and ourselves have been in touch with the company to see what can be done. It's worrying for a lot of people in Limerick. But no final decision has been made and I don't think it would be appropriate to speculate," she says.

There is she counters a good pipeline of inward investment projects, reflecting the work done by her predecessors who arguably had more time than she will have to worry about innovation, convergence, strategy groups and the like.Coughlan's own legacy looks like it will be more controversial.

ON THE RECORD

Name:Mary Coughlan

Position:Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Career:Elected to Dáil Éireann in 1987, she held the posts of minister for social and family affairs as well as agriculture and food before being appointed minister for enterprise and employment .

Background:Daughter of the late Cathal Coughlan, Dáil deputy for Donegal South-West between 1893 and 1986.

Education:Attended the Ursuline Convent, Sligo, and University College, Dublin, where she studied Social Science.

Family: Married to David Charlton. One son and one daughter.

Age:43

Something you might expect:She is a fluent Irish speaker

Something that might surprise you:She is a keen cyclist