Tag Archives: Richard Bruton

Target of 911 Jobs Set For High Potential Startups Initiative

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The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today announced that 911 new jobs will be created over the next three years in 53 new high potential start-up companies supported by Government through Enterprise Ireland.

Today’s announcement relates to companies to which support has been provided in the first six months of 2012 under Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Ups Programme. Both the number of investments and the number of jobs to be created are significantly up on the same period last year (755 jobs/42 companies). These companies come from a wide range of sectors including the innovative sectors that the Government is targeting for growth such as financial services, ICT, digital games, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Making the announcement, Minister Bruton said:

“Central to the Government’s plan for jobs and growth is developing a strong engine of indigenous business. We have a base of multinational companies located here that is the envy of many other countries. What we must also do if we are to create the jobs we need is to create a base of indigenous companies that match that level of success. As I have said before, our aim is not only to attract the next Google or Microsoft to Ireland, but to make it possible for the next Google or Microsoft to start-up in Ireland.

Government Announces New Awareness For Unused Schemes

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The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton has launched an information leaflet outlining 15 schemes available to businesses seeking to start-up, expand and create jobs.

Mr Bruton said that when meeting with businesses around the country, it became clear that there was a lack of awareness amongst business of many of the schemes which are available to start and grow your business, and some of these schemes are seriously underused.

For example, in the case of Revenue Job Assist, almost 200,000 people are eligible to qualify for this scheme, but in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, only 650 people benefited from it.

The leaflet outlines a number of financial supports for business, including:

SEED CAPITAL SCHEME: Claim back up to €100,000 in income tax paid and invest into a company subscribed as shares

THREE YEAR CORPORATE TAX EXEMPTION: Offers tax relief for new start ups,

BACK TO WORK ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE (SELF-EMPLOYED): Retain your social welfare while starting up,

EMPLOYMENT INVESTMENT AND INCENTIVE SCHEME: Tax relief for investment in certain corporate trades. Get 30% relief on €150,000 investment,

R&D TAX CREDIT: Set 25% tax credit against corporation tax liability,

INNOVATION VOUCHERS: Apply for a €5,000 innovation voucher to help you explore a business opportunity or problem,

ACCELERATED CAPITAL ALLOWANCE: Gives tax relief for energy efficient companies,

REVENUE JOB ASSIST: Take on someone who has been on the live register for 12 months and claim a double write off of the wages and PRSI for 3 years,

EMPLOYER JOB (PRSI) INCENTIVE SCHEME: Take on someone who has been unemployed for 6 months and pay no PRSI for 18 months.

Enterprise Boards Will Retain Staff After Abolition

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The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has admitted that staff at county enterprise boards will remain in their posts after their organisations are abolished this year.

Under proposals announced by the Government last year, the 35 boards will be replaced by units in local authorities and Enterprise Ireland.

Richard Bruton told reporters in Galway yesterday that staff at the 35 boards “will all be retained”.

An implementation plan, which was at its early stages, would involve “working out the human resources dimension” and “how that will bed in”.

“The key is that we will have quality service, a centre of excellence in Enterprise Ireland, and a new range of policy instruments at the disposal of the local offices,” Mr Bruton said.

This will come a a disappointment to many within the SME sector who have felt that wholesale changes were needed within the enterprise board system in Ireland. Now  it seems they have simply been re-packaged without out any impetus to change.

I’d Vote No, But We’re In To Deep

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It’s a catch 22. We’re damned if do and we’re damned if we don’t. In weighing up how I’m going to vote I really don’t see the ‘benefits’ in voting either way. What I’m being asked is to choose the lesser of two evils.

The fact of the matter is that decisions taken by this government and the previous government have led us down a road where we dare not turn back. The inability to stand firm and state our case aggressively to the EU has brought us to this point where we must be forced to vote yes out of fear of being cut off from funding and fear of Mr. Noonan threatening us all with ‘tougher budgets’.

We have been led by the nose by a group of people who have lacked the guts and political imagination to develop better and more credible solutions to a problem that is fours years old and which keeps rumbling on. In voting yes we are being asked to become tighter to the EU, an organisation that has shown that it is incapable of focusing deeply and quickly on solving a crisis that they aided. Why on earth should we move ourselves closer to an organisation like that? If anything we should distancing ourselves from the ineptitude and crippling indecision. But then again look who we have sent to represent us.

Where Will The Growth Come From?

This government loves to blame the previous government for situation which we are in. Did they inherit it – yes – have they had opportunities to change the direction in which has led us to this point – yes. Time after time opportunities have shown themselves which could have been used as bargaining chips to get something more for our benefit – Bank debt, Greece, growth measures inside the fiscal treaty. This lack of imagination and ability to simply take what we are given says to me that this government has neither the imagination or the will to do things differently than the previous regime. In business the first lesson you hear when you talk to people and network is what the definition of insanity is – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

But ultimately, because of where we have been put, we must go for where the money is. Voting yes will give us the security that we need…for now. I’ll choose the lesser of two evils.

So when I vote Yes in this referendum it will be with deep scepticism and a heavy heart.

By Kehlan Kirwan, Editor

Bruton Announces Credit Guarantee Bill For Businesses

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The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, has today published the Credit Guarantee Bill 2012, and announced the appointment of an operator for the Temporary Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme.

The Scheme aims to provide much-needed credit to job-creating SMEs who currently struggle to get finance from the banks. It is intended to address market failure affecting commercially viable businesses in two specific situations – namely, where businesses have insufficient collateral, and where businesses operate in sectors with which the banks are not familiar – and provide a 75% State guarantee to banks against losses on qualifying loans to firms with growth and job creation potential.

Initially, the scheme will facilitate up to €150m of additional lending per annum to SMEs, in addition to the lending targets set for the pillar banks. The Scheme will be demand-led, and take-up and performance will be closely monitored.

For every €150million of additional lending, the Scheme is expected to benefit over 1800 businesses. The cost of the Scheme per €150million of lending is €6.38million. However this does not take into account benefits to the exchequer this lending will bring in terms of increased tax receipts and decreased social welfare payments. When these benefits are taken into account, the net gain to the Exchequer is over €25million per €150million of lending.

The principle measures in the Bill include:

  • Empowering the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, to give a 75% loan guarantee
  • Procedures for designating a lending institution as a participating lending institution
  • Provision for the payment of a 2% premium charge to the Minister by participating SME borrowers,
  • The setting of eligibility criteria for borrowers, in line with the European Commission definition of an SME. A qualifying enterprise must not employ more than 250 persons.
  • Provision for review of the scheme at any time. The Government have agreed to review the Scheme after one year of operation.
  • Assigning a contractor to oversee the operation of the Scheme.

Add On: Welcoming the announcement, ISME CEO, Mark Fielding stated “while this long-awaited initiative will not be the ‘silver bullet’ for all small businesses, it will certainly be of assistance to those who have been refused bank credit in the past, due to insufficient collateral. The additional government guarantee will make it much more difficult for banks to refuse viable SMEs’ requests for loan finance, which has become a debilitating feature of economy since September 2008”.

Minister Bruton also announced that he has awarded a contract for the practical oversight, management and operation of the Guarantee Scheme to Maynooth-based company Capita Asset Services following a competitive tendering process.

Reforms to Joint Labour Committee and Registered Employment Agreements

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Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today announced reforms to the Joint Labour Committee and Registered Employment Agreement wage settling mechanisms, following Government decision last Tuesday. Continue reading →