Enterprise Ireland will spend a total of €5 million per year on a project to incentivise senior managers to join small and medium-sized Irish firms by paying half their salary for two years.
The "upskilling" scheme, to be introduced in the coming days, is one of a range of measures in a restructuring of Enterprise Ireland that is designed to boost exports from indigenous firms by €3 billion within three years.
The effort to internationalise indigenous companies is Enterprise Ireland's response to the Enterprise Strategy Group's report on industrial policy, which called for a range of measures to boost the competitiveness of indigenous firms.
In a novel programme that will see private sector managers part paid directly from the public purse, companies will be able to apply for €100,000 in State funding to recruit high-level managers.
The companies will have to match the €100,000 with their own money and make the case to Enterprise Ireland that an experienced senior manager's expertise is required to keep the company on a speedy growth path.
The scheme will operate on a competitive tender basis. Some €5 million will be available initially, meaning that 50 companies could benefit from it.
In addition to programmes to improve expertise in supply chain management and source new technologies, Enterprise Ireland is also making €20 million available in a new "productivity fund".
Small Irish-owned firms will be able to apply for funding under this scheme to pay for the acquisition of technology, management and staff training, and capital investment in machinery and automation equipment.
These funding streams are part of a package of measures designed to help new Irish companies to build scale on the international markets. Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said yesterday that too few Irish companies had achieved revenues of more than €20 million or grew to employ more than 250 workers.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michael Martin said the low-cost model was no longer an option in the Irish economy.
"Irish companies must increasingly compete through innovation, adopting best practice, a relentless focus on driving productivity gains and increased automation."
The Minister said the new strategy was not a repeat of previous Enterprise Ireland initiatives, under which Irish-owned companies were picked out for "hothouse" treatment to grow their business.
"I think we have to do more and do it better," he said.
By 2010, Enterprise Ireland aims to double to 1,050 the number of Irish firms that spend more than €100,000 per annum on research and development (R&D). In the same period, it aims to increase to 100 from about 33 the number of firms spending more than €2 million on R&D. Funding of some €76 million will be available for R&D projects within companies and at universities. Within the next three years, Enterprise Ireland wants to suppport more than 200 new "high-export potential start-up companies" throughout the State, while helping "export readiness" projects at a further 300 firms.
New business units have been established within Enterprise Ireland in the following areas: exports; R&D and technology; competitiveness; upskilling, and regional development.
The body's clients will be clustered according to their markets in divisions dealing with food and retail; consumer markets; software and IT services, and industrial and life sciences markets.
