Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the sum of any public funds, and their purpose, which have been awarded by his Department either directly or indirectly to the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation in the past decade. [22262/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Information sought by the Deputy in relation to the period prior to 2004 is not readily available and would involve a very significant amount of administrative time to compile.

Since 2004 my Department has made payments of €48,169 to the 'Irish Business and Employers Confederation', arising principally from the provision of staff training and academic programmes, as well as conference fees.

Payments of €400,000 were also made to the 'Irish Business and Employers Confederation – Financial Services'. These payments were made during the years 2010/2011 and arose from the award of a contract to run the Financial Services Ireland Career Start programme. The Career Start Programme, which is funded by the Labour Market Activation Fund, is designed to provide employees with the skills, support and experience to enable them to enter the International Financial Services sector and to access sustainable employment.