Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the Chairman's remarks, as I did the Minister's last week, in complimenting the Secretary General and his team in the Department and Brussels on a busy Presidency. I also compliment the Secretary General on his report.

I wish to raise specific issues. The youth guarantee may be the most important legacy of our Presidency. Mr. Murphy mentioned that most of the resources would need to come from national budgets. What is the EU bringing to the equation? What will his Department's role be? He stated that rolling out the guarantee is for the Department of Social Protection, but what responsibility will his Department have in that roll-out?

Will Mr. Murphy confirm that we will need a referendum in respect of the unitary patent system? Has there been any discussion of when that referendum will be held? My understanding is that the referendum is ready, but I have heard no word of it being included among the forthcoming referendums in the autumn. If so many benefits are to arise from the system, one would assume that the Department would be anxious to move to a referendum as quickly as possible.

Mr. Murphy's comments on public procurement were made in the context of removing blockages in the Single Market. From this committee, Deputy Lawlor and others, Mr. Murphy will know that our concern about public procurement relates to the manner in which it is being rolled out in Ireland, particularly by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, as an anti-Irish SME programme. Tenders are rolled out in large blocks and Irish SMEs are not given the chance to get involved, losing them job creation opportunities. Will the developments make it easier for Irish companies to access public procurement, thereby maintaining or creating jobs in Ireland?

Horizon 2020 and the Programme for the Competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs, COSME, are welcome. We have one year of influence left in terms of Horizon 2020, given Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn's presence. What plans does the Department have in place to tie down some specifics? A great deal of work is under way in Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, and the Department's science wing. Some good announcements have been made.

We raised the issue of state aid modernisation with the Minister via parliamentary questions last week. The activity in what are called "C" regions will have a particular impact on Ireland. Will Mr. Murphy confirm for the record what this will mean? A great deal of work was done by the Department and the Minister to bring Commissioner Almunia down from the cliff again, given his initial proposals. Will the modernisation have implications for the way in which the IDA engages in its operations? It will not kick in until this time next year, but one assumes that the IDA is in preparation mode.

The Minister has set up a group of what he called seven dynamic people in the sector to advise on the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. Will their work feed into our contribution to the 2020 action plan? In light of the work done by the Cypriot Presidency on the proposal for quotas for women on boards, I wish to point out that only one woman was appointed to the group of seven. Will Mr. Murphy outline the quota proposals agreed under the Cypriot Presidency and highlighted by him?