Ó An Roinn Fiontar, Trádála agus Fostaíochta
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Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and Pat Breen TD, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market, and Data Protection today launched an OECD Review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Ireland and an accompanying roadmap with priority areas for implementation. The OECD was commissioned in March 2018 by Minister Humphreys to undertake the Review, the scale of which has not been seen before in Ireland.
The focus of the Review was to identify policies and strategies to improve Irish SME productivity levels, resilience and the potential for growth and internationalisation. It includes best practice examples from countries with similar challenges to Ireland. The OECD Deputy Secretary General, Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, attended the launch.
The OECD’s analysis will form the basis for a new government strategy on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, which will be published by the end of the year following further consultation.
The Ministers have also established a new SME and Entrepreneurship Consultation Group of key stakeholders to consider the Review and areas for action.
Minister Humphreys said:
"Our country has made huge strides since the dark days of the recession. Through resilience, talent, and determination, we overcame enormous challenges. Nevertheless, with global challenges facing us there is no room for complacency. Every generation needs to shake up its enterprise and jobs model, otherwise it falls backwards.
"Through Future Jobs Ireland, the Government wants to nurture entrepreneurship and support our businesses and workers to prepare now for tomorrow’s world. 70% of our workers are employed by an SME, which highlights the crucial importance of Ireland’s indigenous businesses to stability and growth in every region. That is why I commissioned the OECD to undertake a detailed review into Ireland’s SME and entrepreneurship policies in March 2018.
"The OECD’s recommendations will form the building blocks of an ambitious new national SME and Entrepreneurship strategy, which I will bring forward by the end of this year."
The key OECD recommendations for Ireland and areas for focus in the forthcoming new strategy include:
Minister Humphreys added:
"I am acutely aware that our indigenous Irish companies are the engine of our economy, and I want to ensure we are doing everything in our power to support them. In the past, smaller firms have sometimes felt overlooked by governments and I want to change the narrative. Our new SME strategy will be about creating the future we want by ensuring that indigenous firms are given the red carpet treatment they deserve."
Minister Breen said:
"Having engaged with the OECD throughout the process, I have seen the advantage of their knowledge and experience in the area of SME and Entrepreneurship policy. Having an external body examine the programmes and policies for Irish SMEs has been a thorough and rewarding experience. We have learnt not only of our strengths and areas in need of improvement but also real, best practice examples from around the world. I am delighted to see the emphasis on digital transformation, an area under my own remit. SMEs can be more agile and innovative than larger businesses and the digital world allows them to take advantage of this as never before.
"As chair of the new Consultative Group, with over 40 members including representative groups, programme managers, policymakers and SMEs themselves, I will lead the drive to progress the recommendations of the OECD Roadmap and their integration into actions within the Future Jobs framework."
ENDS
The OECD Roadmap summarises the priority recommendations of the wider Review. The recommendations are broken down into the following themes and actions.
| 10.30 | Introduction by Declan Hughes, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation |
| 10.35 | Address by Minister Humphreys TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation |
| 10.45 | Address by OECD Deputy Secretary General, Ulrick Vestergaard Knudsen |
| 10.55 | Presentation of the OECD Roadmap and Review on SME and Entrepreneurship Policies in Ireland - Jonathan Potter |
| 11.10 | Address by Minister Pat Breen TD, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection |
| 11.20 | Presentation from Mark Christal, Manager of the Regions and Entrepreneurship Division in Enterprise Ireland |
| 11.25 | Presentation of the Report on Financial Literacy amongst Irish Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises - Tom Cooney, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Technological University Dublin and Sven Spollen-Behrens, Chief spokesperson and Chief Government Liaison at the SFA |
| 11.30 | Presentation from Gary O’Meara, Meath Enterprise and Managing Director of the new Boyne Valley Food Innovation District |
| 11.35 | Conclusions and Next Steps – Declan Hughes, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation |
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation commissioned the OECD in March 2018, to conduct a Review of SME and Entrepreneurship policies in Ireland.
This is an 18-month project and it aims to provide tailored analysis and recommendations to DBEI and the Irish government on how to improve the design and implementation of national SME and entrepreneurship policies and programmes, based on an assessment of the country’s current SME and entrepreneurship performance, framework conditions and policies based on international comparisons.
This is a collaborative body of work and involves considerable input from wider Government and stakeholders. This will assist DBEI to develop an SME Strategy as part of the Future Jobs Framework.
While the Review is a comprehensive and detailed Report, the Roadmap is a shorter document, which identifies the key priority recommendations that should receive the most immediate focus for implementation.
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Central to Future Jobs Ireland is a re-orientation of policy from the numbers of gross jobs created in the economy, to the creation of more productive and sustainable quality jobs. It focuses on the challenges ahead in terms of ensuring we have skilled people working in quality jobs in sustainable sectors. Future Jobs Ireland will also ensure our enterprises and workers are well positioned to adapt to the technological and other transformational changes our economy and society will face in the years ahead.
Future Jobs Ireland 2019 focuses on five Pillars namely:
A driving goal of government policy is to increase the living standards of our people. Increasing productivity levels is a key enabler of achieving this goal.
Future Jobs Ireland will target an annual average increase in multifactor productivity (which captures how efficiently we use our labour and other resources) in the domestic sectors of the economy by 1% per year to 2025.
Implementation of Future Jobs Ireland 2019 is ongoing and in July the Government published the first Future Jobs Ireland 2019 Progress Report. The Report provides a summary of progress towards implementing the outputs for each deliverable in Future Jobs Ireland 2019 due in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2. The Report is available on www.gov.ie/taoiseach.