The Minister of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte has said that social enterprise has the potential to create 25,000 jobs over the next five years.
The minister, who was speaking at the opening of a conference on social enterprise in Tallaght, said: "Social enterprise is underdeveloped at 3% of GDP and little is known in Ireland. The European norm for social enterprise is between 4% and 7% of GDP.
"The Social Economy should not be confused with community and voluntary traditional endeavour. Rather it is an entirely different concept based on an exacting and rigorous business model”, the Minister said.
“For the first time a commitment to the development of Social Enterprise features in a Programme for Government.
The Programme negotiated between Labour and Fine Gael pledges that the Government will promote the development of a vibrant and effective social enterprise sector.
He said: "A particular Government Ministry must take responsibility for the development of this area. Whether it is the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation or the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government is yet to be settled on.
"Since it is critical that social enterprises have access to the existing support structures that are available to conventional SMEs such as County Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland, Business Innovation Centres and so on, it may be best that responsibility is reposed in the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation.
"That department has a micro-finance fund for start up enterprises and there is no reason why social enterprises should not have access to that fund."
The Minister also praised Clann Credo for providing ongoing support to social enterprises.