Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

ConnectIreland's 'Succeed in Ireland' Programme: Discussion

11:00 am

Ms Joanna Murphy:

It appears, not being privy to that particular relationship, that there is a certain handing off of the responsibility but nobody seems to want to get engaged on the topic of a re-tender. We have spoken to the Minister in the past. We have written to the Minister asking for intervention, for somebody to assist in that regard.

We have not had any action or output, as yet, on that. We are here to resolve matters and not to look back. It is important to put on the record that ConnectIreland of itself is an innovation. It is a disruptive FDI, if I can use that expression. It is doing something different. We have been internationally award-winning and that is not to celebrate ourselves but to celebrate the likes of Mr. James Moran, who has done all of the work. We would not exist were it not for the great leads that come in. We accept that there can be gaps and challenges in innovation and all we want to do is resolve. We just have not had any engagement in that respect, unfortunately.