Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was not my telephone.

The reforms play an important part in ensuring that we yield value for money. They are reflected in the Estimate. In April, we dissolved the county enterprise boards, CEBs, and established local enterprise offices, LEOs. Since then and under the new service-level agreement with Enterprise Ireland, there has been a new dynamic in those offices. As the CEOs of local authorities, county and city managers are significant new drivers of enterprise. This alliance is working well and the LEOs are showing a good impact. They have rolled out new projects successfully, for example, for young entrepreneurs. They are also showing an impact on micro-finance, where the take-up level has nearly doubled. They have been key agents.

We have dissolved Forfás. Deputy Calleary is concerned that, since its functions were brought into the Department, we have blunted Forfás, but that is not the case. It has been key to driving the Action Plan for Jobs and, through the National Competitiveness Council, continues to have an edge in its work. Shannon Development was formally dissolved. We merged the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency. The new commission is settling down well. We passed the Companies Act 2014, which is major legislation. I thank the Oireachtas for facilitating it. It was years in process.

The workplace relations commission, WRC, Bill is nearing the end of its legislative process.

It is another major reform undertaken within the Department that is delivering better impacts and quicker hearing of cases. Members will be aware of the proposal to establish a low pay commission, which initiative will be undertaken by the new Minister of State, Deputy Nash. Work on this initiative is advancing and the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, will shortly announce the membership of the new board of the commission. He is also progressing the construction contracts legislation, which members will be aware had been held up.

Looking to the future, we are seeking to identify the areas we need to continue to improve. There is no doubt that the two main areas in this regard are entrepreneurship, where we can significantly improve our performance, and regional development. Although every region has experienced overall employment growth, including through Enterprise Ireland and IDA, as measured by the QNHS there is no doubt that we can improve our capacity to exploit the potential of our regions. This is something I am very keen to do. We are starting a process this year which I hope will drive that forward in a way that has not been done before. We are looking forward to a high quality of application for some of the competitive funds we are setting. Our hope is that not only will this result in a more concerted action by the existing agencies in the regions, with a much more strategic look by those agencies at the regions, but that the process will act as a catalyst for the many other players in the regions in terms of their impact on enterprise growth.