The Government has today launched an ambitious jobs plan which aims to create 100,000 new positions by 2016 and a further 100,000 by 2020.
1. Partial Loan Scheme - In an effort to address the difficulties small companies face accessing credit, the State is to introduce a partial loan guarantee for small and medium businesses. That measure is expected to be operational by the second quarter of this year.
2. Capital Scheme - The plan also includes a development capital scheme for companies with prospects of jobs and export growth. It will be backed by €50m of state investment which is expected to leverage up to €100m.
3. Micro Finance Fund - The jobs plan also sees the establishment of a new micro finance fund which will supply investment in small companies seeking less than €25,000. The fund will be worth €10m every year for ten years. The European Investment Bank will supply some of the equity.
4. Finders's Fee - Today's plan launches a finders' fee for people of Irish extraction abroad who succeed in bring major job projects to Ireland. There is also a facility for the diaspora to contribute to investment in new enterprises which is modelled on similar scheme in Israel.
5. Encourage Start-ups in Ireland - The plan includes steps to encourage more mobile international entrepreneurs to start businesses in Ireland through a €10m State fund for investment in start-ups, improvement in immigration arrangements, a targeted marketing campaign and greater use of IDA Ireland's network.
6. Investment Fund - A strategic investment fund will match private sector investment with money from the National Pension Reserve Fund. The NPRF will commit €250m and a further €1 billion will be sought from institutional investors in Ireland and overseas for infrastructural investment.
7. Restructuring of support agencies - Under the plan, county and city enterprise boards will be dissolved. A new micro enterprise and small business unit in Enterprise Ireland will now work with local authorities. A corporation tax exemption will be extended for start-up companies until 2014.
8. Fine tune Business Performance - Other measures will see better support indigenous companies to improve their performance, including increased mentoring of SMEs by top business leaders, multinationals and large Irish companies and helping small businesses to engage in R&D and innovation.
9. Empowerment of SMEs - Under the plan, more SMEs will be helped to win big contracts, both from Government and from large multinationals while it also introduces measures to reduce costs, including a request to government department and agencies to identify, by next month, charges levied on business that can be frozen or reduced for 24 months.
Launching the plan, which contains over 270 actions to be implemented in 2012 by all 15 Government Departments as well as 36 State agencies, the Government said it will improve supports for job-creating businesses and remove barriers to employment-creation across the economy.