Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, the Ministers of State, Deputies English and Nash, and their officials. I also thank the committee secretariat for the brief provided to members.

On subhead A5, I take this opportunity to congratulate IDA Ireland and all involved on the successful year they have had. However, is it a matter of concern to the Minister that while 15,012 jobs were created in 2014, 7,881 jobs were lost in IDA client companies, which equates to 52% of the number of jobs created? It is a similar story in terms of Enterprise Ireland. Is any work being done within the Department on identifying the reason for this high proportion of job losses? Given the level of investment and fantastic effort that went into securing those 15,000 jobs, what work is being done to identify where those jobs are being lost?

The Minister announced last week that under the IDA building programme for 2015 onwards, it is proposed to construct more advance units. Perhaps he would update the committee on the three units announced. I understand the units at Waterford and Letterkenny are almost complete. What is the position in regard to the Athlone unit? The Minister might also expand on his commitment in the Dáil last Thursday regarding additional IDA capital expenditure on existing IDA parks.

On subhead A7, I congratulate Enterprise Ireland on its success. However, as in the case of IDA Ireland while it was responsible for the creation of 19,705 jobs, 11,229 EI client jobs were lost, giving a net of 8,476 jobs created, which equates to a 56% of a loss. Again, this is a matter of concern.

With regard to subhead A8, I congratulate the local employment offices, LEOs, which are definitely up and running. One gets the sense that they have hit the ground running. As the Minister acknowledged, there is no doubt that they have made an impact on Microfinance Ireland. I have not seen a figure relating to the number of jobs they, or the old county enterprise boards, CEBs, created in 2014 and how many were lost in CEB enterprise client companies. If the Minister has that, perhaps he would provide it.

I cannot find the subhead for the credit guarantee scheme.