Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset I would like to sympathise with our colleagues in Westminster and with the people of London who have experienced yet another horrific attack by Islamic extremists. It is almost a year to the day since we had another attack, in Brussels, where 32 people lost their lives. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, my party leader and my colleagues I would like to express our condolences to the families of the four people who lost their lives yesterday and to wish all the other people who were injured as part of that incident a speedy recovery.

The issue I wish to raise with the Tánaiste regards job creation. She will be well aware of the Succeed in Ireland initiative, a concept which grew out of the recent Global Irish Economic Forum. It is an idea and plan for job creation which was sponsored by the Government, managed by the IDA and its running was contracted to an organisation called ConnectIreland. It is fair to say, by any measure, this initiative can be considered an outstanding success when one considers that, around the globe, there are now in excess of 80,000 members of the Irish diaspora connected to this programme in more than 147 countries. We have seen 81 companies locate in this country as a result of the initiative creating more than 2,000 jobs, with a yield to the Exchequer in excess of €300 million over the life of the programme and an estimated yield to our GDP of €1.8 billion.

In addition to this it is very important that the Tánaiste know, appreciate and understand that ConnectIreland is a not-for-profit company. It gets paid for job creation on a no-foal, no-fee basis. Every job it creates costs €4,000 whereas an equivalent job created by the IDA costs in the region of €11,000, so the value for money can be seen. Significantly, it has gone a long way towards addressing the urban-rural issue we have, which has arisen because the Government and the IDA have not been pushing enough jobs into rural Ireland with the result that there has been a concentration of jobs coming into the greater Dublin area.

On Tuesday, 21 March, the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation met with ConnectIreland and officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. It was a very unsatisfactory meeting because the IDA and Enterprise Ireland failed to show. It is fair to say that there was cross-party support and a unanimous view that the work of ConnectIreland has been very successful. It has been proven to bring jobs into Ireland and into rural Ireland in particular. Now we are at a point where on 26 March, which is this Sunday, the contract is due to expire. The contact was extended by a year to allow for a review. That review has not gotten under way. We have had complete inertia from the Government and from the Department in regard to establishing it.

There has been a lot of momentum built up, there have been many leads generated, there have been many contacts generated and there are many potential jobs in the pipeline as a result of the Succeed in Ireland initiative and the work of ConnectIreland. It is coming to a shuddering halt on Sunday next. We are asking the Government see common sense. Will the Minister step in and extend the contract? There is precedent because the contract was previously extended for a year. She should extend it for the period and duration of the review, which is about to get under way and for which we do not have the terms of reference. Can we have some common sense from Government and extend this contract?

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