Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To refer back to Deputy Coppinger's question, the total gross Exchequer expenditure by the Department in 2013 was €791.9 million, and 57% of this represented total capital expenditure via agencies under the Department's remit. Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and many other agencies under the aegis of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation have done remarkable work in recent years in restoring Ireland's economic reputation abroad and they give excellent value for money for the taxpayer. They work enormously hard to promote Ireland abroad and work with indigenous Irish companies to create jobs. We can see that unemployment levels in the country have reduced enormously in recent years, from a high of approximately 15.2% to 11% and dropping. There are still far too many people out of work and we need to get many more people into sustainable decent jobs, and we are making considerable progress in doing so. All of the resources available to our agencies are accounted for and spent properly, and like other Government agencies, the Department's agencies have gone through a period of reform to ensure they are streamlined, slim, fit and lean and spend taxpayers' money in the appropriate way in promoting Ireland and ensuring we create the jobs we need.

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