11th April 2019
Paris, 11 April, Minister Pat Breen TD, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, will visit the OECD in Paris today to discuss the OECD Review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Ireland.
The OECD Review is a landmark project, carried out over an 18-month period, and aims to provide tailored analysis and recommendations to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation 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 performance, framework conditions, and international comparisons.
Minister Breen will today meet with the OECD Working Party on SME and Entrepreneurship for an exchange of views on the progress of the Review. The Minister will address the Working Party, and the meeting will also hear from the four OECD countries who are participating in the peer review of the project – Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, and Canada.
The OECD Review is a collaborative exercise and has involved considerable input from a wide range of stakeholders, including SME representatives in Ireland. The Review is expected to be finalised later this year and will inform the development by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation of an Irish SME and Entrepreneurship Strategy, which will be part of the Future Jobs Framework.
The key objectives of the Review are to provide an assessment of current SME and entrepreneurship policies and programmes in Ireland, to strengthen policy design and implementation, including through a policy roadmap, and to provide an international comparison of successful SME and entrepreneurship policies.
Speaking in Paris, Minister Breen said,
“I welcome the opportunity to meet with the OECD today, to take forward this landmark Review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Ireland. SMEs are the backbone of our business community, with a presence in every region and every town across the country, and are vital both for our enterprise culture, and also for the vibrancy of local communities. The OECD Review gives us a very valuable opportunity to have an expert evaluation of our current SME environment, and to learn from international best practice, especially from our fellow OECD countries, from different parts of the world. The recommendations from the Review will be highly valuable to us in developing our own Irish SME and Entrepreneurship Strategy, beginning later this year”.
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NOTE TO EDITORS
OECD Country Review of SME & Entrepreneurship Policies in Ireland
To further underpin the work of the National Policy Statement and Entrepreneurship, the Department in March 2018 commissioned the OECD to conduct a Review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies in Ireland. This is an 18-month pivotal process, the aim of which is 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 review will be completed this summer and published in quarter 3 of this year. DBEI will also receive a SME and Entrepreneurship Roadmap in tandem. This will assist DBEI to develop an SME and Entrepreneurship Strategy which will be part of the Future Jobs Framework. It will inform the whole of Government how best to address the needs of our SMEs and entrepreneurs through policy intervention going forward.
Preliminary findings indicate specific recommendations regarding developing mechanisms to assist SMEs and entrepreneurs in such areas of lifelong learning, financial management and digital skills will be of key importance for the future of our entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) plays a key role in implementing the Government’s policies of stimulating the productive capacity of the economy and creating an environment which supports job creation and maintenance. The Department also has a remit to promote fair competition in the marketplace, protect consumers and safeguard workers.
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