€3.3m for enterprise boards 'to create 450 jobs'

EXTRA FUNDING of €3.3 million is being made available to the 35 city and county enterprise boards and will create “about 450 jobs”, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said.

Making the announcement at Grand Canal Dock in Dublin yesterday, the Taoiseach said the work of the boards was “very important in terms of developing the enterprise society”.

Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe said: “It’s an important initiative because it’s the creation of jobs in local communities.” Jobs would be created “right across the country”.

However, Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said later that the allocation “will only make up some of the funding already slashed from their 2010 budgets. Even after this new allocation, funds for business start-ups will be 10 per cent down on 2009. This comes at a time when potential new start-ups have increased by 20 per cent, as people displaced from jobs try to develop ideas.

“It is difficult to understand why start-ups should be squeezed by a Minister who has ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Innovation’ in his title. The typical grant is 50-75 per cent of what a person would get on the dole. If the business succeeds it would contribute about €20,000 per year to reducing the deficit, every year,” Mr Bruton said.

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Arthur Morgan said: “The announcement of €3.3 million comes with great fanfare but in actual fact it amounts to less than €100,000 per enterprise board. Eight enterprise boards haven’t been allocated any money from this additional funding.”