Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 11, line 22, after “has” to insert “appropriate qualifications and”.

I welcome the Minister of State, who hit the ground running the other day, as the phrase has it. What he is trying to do in this Bill is most important in that we are trying to set up a new institutional framework to repair what happened to us in the past. It has to be a new beginning and he certainly has my support in that regard. If the amendments are of assistance, that is fine, as we discussed earlier with the Minister, Deputy Noonan.
The amendments concern “appropriate qualifications". With regard to the exercising of functions which were heretofore within the Department of Finance, the Wright report at page 6 states that the Department: does not have critical mass in areas where technical economic skills are required; has too many generalists in positions requiring technical economic and other skills; is more numbers driven, than strategic; does not have sufficient engagement with the broader economic community in Ireland; often operates in silos, with limited information sharing; is poorly structured in a number of areas, including at the senior management level; and is poor on human resources management.
Later, he complained that, of 542 staff, just 39 had qualifications in economics at masters level or above.

He compared us unfavourably with Canada, where the rate for those with such qualifications is approximately 60%.

This is a new and important task, for which we need the human capital. That is the reason the amendments have been brought forward. The NTMA needs this expertise, particularly in view of what Mr. Bob Wright said in the report about how these decisions had been made previously. The context, as we said on Second Stage, was that we remove from a very high debt-to-GDP ratio what the banks had cost us. As not much of it is represented by the current budget deficit, it leaves the balance in the area of capital investment appraisal, which is what the NTMA sets out to do. It is important for everybody that the agency succeed and has the human capital it needs to succeed. We need higher level qualifications which traditionally were not present in much of the work done in this area.