Plan to help firms get funding

DRAGON’S DEN-type interviews are being set up between companies and investors in Cork and Kerry by the South-West Regional Authority (SWRA).

The authority hopes the pilot scheme, funded by the European Union, will become a blueprint to help other small companies realise their potential.

A SWRA meeting in Ballincollig was informed yesterday the EU-funded AR Venture Project had identified a number of businesses that were too large to fit the criteria for financing from enterprise boards and too small to be dealt with by Enterprise Ireland.