Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 312: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the jobs created by initiatives funded by him under the jobs initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27332/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Jobs Initiative, which the Government announced on 10 May last, was designed to restore confidence in the economy, stimulate demand, assist those who are unemployed to get back to work and support the maintenance of existing jobs and the creation of new ones. The measures outlined in the Jobs Initiative will be delivered across a number of Government Departments.

With regard to my own Department, the Jobs Initiative included commitments to:

· develop a temporary Partial Credit Guarantee scheme to improve access to credit for business;

· introduce a Microfinance Fund for small business start-ups;

· extend to the wider public sector - excluding commercial State bodies - the requirement to pay suppliers within 15 days of receipt of a valid invoice;

· amend the treatment of R&D expenditure in the accounts of companies;

· improve access by SMEs to public procurement opportunities;

· introduce a scheme to incentivise people to attract new jobs to Ireland.

I also undertook to improve competitiveness across the economy by reducing costs and administrative burdens on business and by reforming the statutory wage setting mechanisms. Since May, my Department has been actively working on all of these measures.

The requirement to pay suppliers within 15 days was extended beyond central Government to the wider public sector, including Local Authorities and the HSE, from 1 July. This measure is designed to improve the cash-flow of companies – and particularly small companies – who supply goods and services to the public sector. Considerable work has been carried out on developing the temporary Partial Credit Guarantee scheme. I will shortly be considering the scheme design, which is near completion. Full examination of the accompanying cost benefit analysis will indicate the number of jobs the scheme is expected to create and/or retain.

Work on developing the Microfinance Fund for small business start-ups is also progressing well and has involved detailed discussions with key stakeholders. I expect to be able to make an announcement about this scheme before the end of the year. The R&D tax credit regime was amended under the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2011, to provide greater flexibility to companies to account for the benefit of the R&D tax credit. This change will make Ireland a more competitive location for locating R&D activities, and could therefore have a substantial impact on job creation. In relation to improving SME access to public procurement, my Department established a Steering Group, comprising key players, to identify actions which can be taken in this area. I will be receiving an initial progress report from the Steering Group in the coming days.

The scheme to incentivise people to attract new jobs to Ireland is being managed by IDA Ireland. The IDA is working on a framework to give effect to the proposal within current Irish legislation and EU State Aid rules. My Department has identified potential savings of approximately €187 million per annum for businesses in Ireland arising from measures taken to reduce the administrative burden in the areas of Company Law, Employment Law and Health and Safety Law. My Department is also leading a cross-Government programme to further measure and reduce the administrative burden across all areas of regulation affecting business. A project to measure these burdens across seven Departments and the Offices of the Revenue Commissioners is due to be completed by mid-2012.

I am continuing to work on actions to reform sectoral wage agreements, which will help to improve the competitiveness of businesses in certain areas. Heads of a Bill to give effect to these reform proposals have been prepared by my Department and agreed by Government. They have been communicated to the Attorney General who has agreed to give the highest priority to drafting this legislation. The main purpose of the Bill is to implement comprehensive reform proposals designed to strengthen the legal framework for the making of both Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) and Registered Employment Agreements (REA).

All of these measures will create a more competitive environment for business and will help to maintain jobs and generate new ones. I will continue to work with my Government colleagues to identify actions that can be taken to reduce costs in other areas to improve the competitiveness of the economy and support the creation of jobs.