THE Government should establish a single agency to grant aid small firms to replace the myriad existing services, the Oireachtas Committee on Small Business and Services said last night. The TDs and Senators also called for changes to the system of apprenticeship so that it would create more places.

"The joint committee is concerned that there are too many State agencies, all with responsibility for supporting small business and services," according to an interim report by the committee.

"The number and the varying roles and functions of the different State agencies result in some conclusion among small business practitioners, fragmentation and duplication of service and indeed competition among each other for scarce resources," it said.