David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This was held over from last week. It was not in the correspondence at the time it was sent in so we agreed we would take it this week. It was follow-on correspondence because there was a discussion on the difference between how ConnectIreland and the IDA have to verify jobs that are created. There are two attachments. The first is PAC32R8482C, which is the requirements that ConnectIreland have to meet. Can we get that up on the screen for a second? What it has to do is identify somebody responsible within the organisation to ensure the jobs were created. It has to create a spreadsheet which then shows the name of the employee, the employee's position, the employee's start date and end date. It must be on company headed paper. There needs to be verification in terms of P30s, contracts and all of that. The verification process is very intense. If we then look at the IDA's one, it is a simple one-page survey and all it has to do is fill in a number of boxes recording how jobs are created. All it is is self-verification. I have a difficulty with that because we depend on that data to present to us the facts of how many jobs are actually created by the IDA. The process here is a joke as far as I can see. This self-assessment and self-verification is madness because we are being told there are a certain number of jobs created and yet there is absolutely no guarantee the figure is genuine. It is simply relying on information it is getting from the company.

There is no follow-up or real inspection and no way we can verify whether it is accurate. I imagine that in most circumstances it probably is and that companies give accurate figures. My point relates to the difference between the hoops ConnectIreland has to go through, rightly. It should be the case that ConnectIreland has to verify the information. If it claims jobs are created, then the company should prove it. IDA Ireland insists that ConnectIreland goes through this process. Yet, there is a far less rigorous process that IDA Ireland has to go through to verify the jobs that it claims to have created. I am not happy with it, to be honest. I am unsure how we deal with it. It may be a matter for the sectoral committee. I am unhappy with the process.