Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Forfás website, which is full of interesting reports, directs one to the Department's website. The news releases from August on the Department's website refer to the expansion of Storyful, Danone concluding an expansion programme, the Taoiseach launching a centre, the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, urging new impetus, MDS opening international offices, and Minister of State Deputy Gerald Nash making a statement. Minister of State Deputy Damien English has not quite made it. All that is missing from the Department's website are the cheerleaders and the pompoms. There is no sense of independent thinking or challenge, which was the hallmark of Forfás and the kinds of documents it produced. For instance, Forfás highlighted a 12% increase in legal fees in its last report on business costs and pushed the Government to do something about the Legal Services Regulation Bill. Nothing was done in this regard. I fear that, in the context of the cheerleading on the website, independent thinking on policy is lost.

The Minister of State, Deputy English, mentioned the enterprise strategy document published at the end of September. It is very good but its recommendations were immediately ignored by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan in the budget, despite the opportunities. There should be a little more independence and a little more challenge in the tradition of Forfás as opposed to what is currently on the Department's website.

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