Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are now in public session.I remind members, visitors and those in the public Gallery that mobile phones must be turned off for the duration of this meeting as they interfere with the broadcasting equipment even when in silent mode. I would also like to inform everyone that this meeting will be carried live on UPC channel 207, eVision channel 504 and Sky channel 574.

I welcome the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton and the Minister of State with responsibility for skills, research and innovation, Deputy Damien English. I would also like to welcome the officials from the Department and thank them for the briefing materials supplied to the committee.

By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

We are meeting today to engage with the Minister on the mid-year review of the Estimates for Public Services, Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the year ending 31 December 2015. Members are advised that the meeting today will comprise two distinct parts. Part one of the meeting will allow members to discuss how the Department measures performance, what it does to improve these measures and what needs to be done in the future. Part two of the meeting concerns the mid-year review of the position regarding outputs and expenditure relating to the Vote for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the year ending 31 December 2015 as well as the emerging position for that Vote so as to alert us to issues that would be relevant to the 2016 Estimate discussions in advance of the allocations being finalised, as envisaged by the comprehensive expenditure report 2012 to 2014.

I will refer to the individual programmes in turn and invite questions on them. Questions or points relating to the programmes can be put after we have gone through the individual programmes. As is the case across a number of committees, I propose that at a future meeting the committee agrees a report on the outcome of our deliberations today and lays it before the Houses.

Members have been provided with briefing documents from the committee secretariat explaining the structure and purpose of this meeting and the issues arising. Before I invite questions from spokespersons, I have an initial question for the Minister. I understand that the Department has a number of issues with how the New Zealand guidance is being applied to the performance measures it has included in the Estimate. Can we begin by establishing whether the Department has any issues with the guidance itself?