James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies for not arriving earlier. It is a challenge to be here on a Tuesday morning. This is a very important issue and I want to put on record that I have met representatives from ConnectIreland.

Although we want to conclude this meeting quickly, I am struck by a host of issues. There is no doubt one of the great things Ireland has is an extraordinary network of people around the world who feel very passionate and strongly about the country. What disturbs me most from what the witnesses had to say is an impression I get that we will be saying to the diaspora, to which we put out our hands at a time when the country was in crisis, "We are all right now thanks very much". That would be very wrong.

I sincerely hope the Department will reconsider this situation and I will certainly be talking to the Minister about it. I am fully aware of the fact that this is very different to the work ConnectIreland does, and that it is a case of no fee, no foal. It is about providing better value for money in a different sort of way. It is going for the smaller scale of one to ten, 20 or 30 jobs as opposed to IDA Ireland, which works in the hundreds and thousands. We want to support IDA Ireland and that is fantastic. I fully accept the witnesses' point that it is not a case of either-or but, rather, that it is both working in tandem.

In Swords yesterday, I visited a home-grown company that started off in 2010 with six people, that now employs 120 and that is going to invest €25 million in order to increase its workforce to 400 over the next three years. The company in question began with a turnover of €40,000 and this has risen to €220 million. From the little acorn, the great oak doth grow. There are hundreds of such companies and we want to support them.

As the Taoiseach once said, if every SME in the country just took on one extra employee we would have 80,000 off the dole immediately. The small ones also work really well. I know there are disputes over figures and I accept that it is not the full story, that the verification process is much more difficult from ConnectIreland's point of view and it is not the same verification process used by IDA Ireland in other areas. We certainly do not want to lose 78,000 connections around the world. Perhaps rather than having a relationship with IDA Ireland, ConnectIreland might look to having a relationship with Enterprise Ireland. One way or the other, I would be very strongly in favour of ConnectIreland continuing. I do not believe one should turn off the light before examining what will replace it or how it was working. It should be left on. I hope the Minister will take action. We will certainly be lobbying her very strenuously to ensure that happens.