Results 46,381-46,400 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Office for Budget Responsibility (22 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Thank you.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I have a question for the Chairman. As we are going through these matters piece by piece, can we use this opportunity to ask questions about the total quantum?

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. I start by congratulating the Minister and her Ministers of State, Deputy Breen and Deputy Halligan, on their appointments. I wish the Minister the best. I also wish the Chairman the best of luck. I am sure we will all be very well behaved most of the time. A new Government, Minister and programme for Government have been put in place. In terms of the spend presented to the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: IDA Ireland's building programme is very good, but it needs to be more ambitious. I would like to see the Minister return to the Dáil to seek more funding. IDA Ireland has targeted third level institutions. In this regard, the Minister listed the institutes in Carlow, Athlone and Waterford. IDA Ireland is building where an institute of technology, university or college is located....

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I would like to get some clarification in this regard. Perhaps the Minister has answered my specific question about IDA Ireland's building programme. That programme was stopped, obviously, but IDA Ireland is now doing it again.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I think it is a valuable programme. When IDA Ireland says it has another €20 million and intends to develop another five or ten office locations around the country, is there a formal process whereby it makes an announcement to that effect and seeks-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I would like to ask the Minister a specific question. I will understand if she does not have the number to hand. Does she know how much the two agencies are currently spending on this programme or this activity at present? Perhaps her officials have a sense of the level of expenditure in this area.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I would like to ask a quick supplementary question. Would the Minister be able to tell me, in the context of the Estimates, what the cost per net job is for Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland?

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish to pose a few questions and make a few observations. I am not sure how much basic scientific research comes into the Minister of State's brief and my figures may be out of date but I think it has been cut by about 60%. Scientists who were engaged in basic scientific research have essentially been outsourced to the pharmaceutical companies. Rather than developing new molecules, they...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Can we go back to that?

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The scientists say that what is happening is being hidden by that data. They say that the total amount of money being spent is not falling but that the work they have to do has changed. They have raised this issue before and the data the Minister of State has just given is exactly the data they have repeated back to them year after year. They are saying that the money for the labs has not...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: It was more an observation. I was picking up on what the Minister of State had said about people doing STEM subjects. There is a gap between our scientists and our product development people. There has been insufficient investment in commercialisation and in the skillset and in creating the linkages and encouraging the IP out of the labs but there is also a gap in basic product...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: That was the basic scientific research part. I made an observation on our academic hiring framework. Basically, we stopped ourselves being able to hire from the private sector and foreigners into academia. The other question relevant to the Vote was whether the Minister of State would recommend any changes to it based on what the Dáil saw in the supplementary Estimate for the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, and wish him the best of luck. My question refers to subhead C7, the Office of the Director of Corporate of Enforcement, ODCE. I am still reading into the brief in respect of this committee, but my understanding anecdotally is that in the past few years the office has not had the kind of-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: My understanding is that the office has been significantly under resourced, so for example, it did not have any forensic accountants. It plays a critical role and I have always been very impressed by the professionalism of the office whenever I have dealt with it. We have a culture whereby white collar crime tends to go unnoticed and undetected. The ODCE is a critical part of the State...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: My next question is on subhead C8, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. I understand from the Department's briefing note that the commission was established in autumn 2015, a few months ago. Most of us would agree that the two bodies that came together never had the resources they needed so there has been an allegation of cartel behaviour, including monopolistic, duopolistic...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I am sorry to cut across the Minister, but she stated she was satisfied with the staffing proposals of the ODCE. Obviously, it takes time to hire staff, but when they have been hired, is the Minister satisfied that the staff complement will be enough to do the job? I ask the same question about the CCPC.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Chairman, may I respond to the Minister of State? I agree. The opportunity and the challenge is the word "start-up". The LEOs are ramping up and are learning what they are doing. Some of them are good and some of them are not so good, but their focus is start-ups. We have the IDA bringing in business. Enterprise Ireland is working with a certain number of businesses, for example,...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (21 Jun 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State. We left questions on the overall budget until now. The document from the Department is excellent and very useful. I have not said that in five years about the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform or Finance. It is not random praise. While the document is good at referring to what is happening, the targets and activities, it does not detail what is...