Results 46,261-46,280 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: If I could draw the link, one of the Votes relates to the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority. Does the Chairman want me to wait? I can bring competition law back up on programme C, if the Chairman likes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Can I ask, as part of the Estimates, about the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: We can go again, if the Chairman wishes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The last point was on broadband. Does the Minister believe that a capital allocation should have been made to maintain public ownership of the upcoming broadband network?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I will start with a comment which is related to my question about what we will start spending less on. It concerns the materials we got from the Minister's Department. Obviously a lot of good things are happening and this is not to talk down any of the good news but this reads like propaganda. It is not balanced committee-level material. There is nothing in this programme about what is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: To state that innovation is important is a bit like stating that education is important when somebody asks what we need to do better in education. It is not responding to the point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister for her response. With the greatest of respect, however, her response exactly mirrors the point I am making, which is that our job here is to hold the Executive to account for the expenditure of public moneys. Like the Minister, I acknowledge the considerable good news and efforts across the board. However, it is impossible that it is all good news. Part of our job is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: If I could just keep going, there is more.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, but-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: -----not on this point, Chairman; I want to move on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: No, I was making an initial point, which we have just debated. The Minister cannot reject the point; the point is a fact and is not a matter of opinion. The reports furnished to the committee have no critical analysis of what is not working. That is not my opinion; that is a fact. I am simply pointing out to the Minister that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: That is what I am trying to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not throwing anything across; this is not an attack.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Sure. When I speak to academics involved in innovation, receiving funding from Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, one of the key frustrations they repeatedly voice is the constraint on their freedom to spend the money. I will give an example. In her initial contribution, the Minister said we needed well paid and sustainable employment. The public hiring framework for researchers in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: At the last meeting the Minister used the phrase "industry-relevant research". Some of the leading researchers are telling me there has been an imbalance in where they are being asked to work and there is too much focus on commercialisation. For example, some of our leading scientists, rather than designing new molecules in the lab, have now had to go to where the funding has been pushed,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: It was from basic scientific research to commercialisation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister for the information relating to 80% basic scientific research. Would it be possible for the committee to get some documentation showing the detail of that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I have one question and one observation. I will make the observation first with the indulgence of the Chair. We are seven months into this Dáil and we have yet to sit down with the Minister and have time on both sides to explore anything. The observation relates to the vulture funds. I would like to formally raise it with the Minister. There are many legitimate Irish companies...