Address by Mr Noel Treacy T.D.,Minister for Science, Technology and CommerceAt the Opening of Westmeath County Enterprise Board’sBusiness Information Centre & the Launch of their County Enterprise Plan 2000 - 2003Friday 17th November, 2000

I am delighted to be invited here today to officially open the Westmeath County Enterprise Board’s new Business Information Centre and to launch your County Enterprise Plan for 2000 -2003.

The Westmeath Enterprise Board, as one of the 35 City and County Enterprise Boards, was established by me at a time when unemployment was high (15% in 1993, compared to 3.8% in 2000) and there was little support and many barriers for the micro enterprise sector. Their objective was to develop indigenous potential and to stimulate economic activity at local level, primarily through the provision of both financial and technical support for the development of small enterprises. It was hoped that County Enterprise Boards would be a means to provide a structured response to the gap that had been identified some years ago in the range of support services for small enterprises across the country.

The Enterprise Boards have proved themselves a phenomenal success, and within a few short years helped transform Ireland’s economic landscape. By providing an unequivocal enterprise focus they have developed indigenous enterprise potential and stimulated economic activity at a local level. The high level of success achieved by County Enterprise Boards is very impressive and, more importantly this has been achieved within a short time scale. The original job targets of 8,000 jobs set for the Boards under the old Operational Programme 1994-1999, has been exceeded with the Boards having assisted in the creation of over 20,000 sustainable jobs for the period of the Programme.

The past year has seen many new developments for the Enterprise Boards. The implementation of the new Regional Operational Programmes has moved the focus of the Enterprise Boards to higher value-added jobs in manufacturing and internationally traded services, and to increasing competitiveness through access to E-Business and the promotion of quality management and best practice.

Westmeath County Enterprise Board has played its part in the success of the Boards having approved over £2.5m. in grant assistance to over 300 projects to the end of last year. In the same period, over 300 full time jobs have been supported by the Enterprise Board and for this they deserve our heartiest congratulations. In recognition of their future role as a facilitator of micro-business development in Westmeath, your Enterprise Board was selected in late 1999 to undertake a pilot programme to establish a "First Stop Shop" for business information under the Small Business Operational Programme.

This Business Information Centre in County Westmeath is one of a network of six centres, which also include Carlow, Donegal, South Dublin, Galway and Kerry. Each centre offers core services and in addition has adopted a set of unique specialisations on which they place special emphasis. The best practice emerging from these distinct specialisations will be shared among the network so that by the end of the programme, a wider range of information and approaches will have been tried and tested.

It is planned to provide the following services:

• The dissemination of information to small businesses via the web.
• Conducting research on the local economy and business support services
• Business Information Databases
• Business Training On-Line
• Technological and Communication advice for small businesses
• Providing access to the Internet for business research and communication purposes together with expert assistance in using this medium to access all kinds of business information for all types of projects.

I am especially pleased to hear that the main focus of the Westmeath Centre will be on-line information.

The Westmeath Enterprise Board intends to use its website as the new entrepreneurs’ first stop for information. The Business Information Centres are joining together to develop a common website that will be accessible through the County Enterprise Board Sites. This common site will provide extensive databases of information for entrepreneurs all over Ireland.

I believe that the establishment of this Business Information Centre is one of the most important steps that can be taken to ensure that the delivery systems and the form in which these supports are offered are fully co-ordinated and appropriate to the needs of the small enterprise everywhere.

County Enterprise Boards have separate and distinct enterprise plans with differing sectoral and local policies particular to its county or functional area. The Westmeath County Enterprise Board’s Action Plan for 2000-2003, outlines in detail the prioritisation of sectors that they have identified for development such as:

• Promoting the attractiveness of County Westmeath as a location for business development
• Encouraging technology based industry
• Promoting balanced business development in the county and
• Building links between education and industry.

The Westmeath Enterprise Board are showing themselves to be firmly committed to stimulating and influencing the growth and development of the micro enterprise sector for the duration of this Operational Programme and beyond by offering an integrated package of supports, geared towards the development needs of Micro-enterprises.

The County Enterprise Boards are one part of the wider enterprise agency family. Their sister agencies are IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. I would now like to say a few words about them.

Here in Westmeath there are over 1950 people employed in companies assisted by Enterprise Ireland and almost 2400 people employed in IDA Ireland assisted companies. Westmeath now has a strong industrial infrastructure with such Irish companies as Mergon International, Leo Wright Ltd, Tara Meats Ltd and Genesis Fine Arts and many well known multi-nationals including LM Ericsson, Mallinckrodt, Penn Racquet Sports, Taconic and GMAC.

Recent IDA Ireland investments in Mullingar include Foxteq Engineering which is building up its employment to 350 people, making PC cabinet enclosures, while the American international services company GMAC Commercial Mortgage, a subsidiary of General Motors, set up a mortgage processing facility here in January last. It is making great headway towards its employment target of over 200 jobs. Other established firms in Mullingar and the surrounding areas include Penn Racquet Sports, Iralco, Powerscreen, Patterson pumps and Data packaging. And I’m delighted to note that many of these continue to re-invest and grow in this County.

Both Mullingar and Athlone are being actively marketed by our development agencies as ideal locations for further new names in the international arena and our indigenous sector. And with the resources of the serviced land which IDA has available in the county and the initiatives of local private developers I am confident that Westmeath will continue to be seen as an attractive location for even further growth in the exciting years ahead.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the commitment of Mr. John McGrath, Chairperson of the Enterprise Board since its inception and to Ms. Christine Charleton, the acting CEO, and her staff, who have all contributed to the success of the Enterprise initiative here in Westmeath. I am confident that the Enterprise Board will go from strength to strength and I wish you every success in the future.