Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans for job creation in view of the planned privatisation of State assets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28871/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I announced last week that I have begun the preparation of a comprehensive Jobs Strategy at the request of the Taoiseach and Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs. Building on the Jobs Initiative of last May, this Strategy will provide an action plan to support the creation of employment in the economy.

It is only by creating the right environment for businesses to expand that we will see new jobs coming on stream. Part of the task is to ensure that critical infrastructure is put in place to allow enterprises to grow and take advantage of the opportunities that will arise in both traditional and emerging sectors. Ireland needs to continue to improve its key infrastructure, particularly in the areas of energy, water and broadband, to maintain Ireland's attractiveness as a place to do business.

These infrastructural services are important for companies in most sectors. For example, the pharmachem sector has a high dependence on water, all exporting companies need better broadband, and energy infrastructure is important for the whole of the economy and for society. Improving our infrastructure in these areas will also help us to exploit opportunities in emerging sectors such as Cloud Computing, Cleantech, and Health and Lifesciences. Identifying opportunities in these, and other, sectors will be part of the Jobs Strategy which I expect to publish in January. In this context, the establishment of NewERA, which was announced by the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and Minister of State Fergus O'Dowd, on 29th September, is an important development.

NewERA will initially be established on a non-statutory basis as a Shareholder Executive within the NTMA. It will have responsibility for reviewing capital investment plans of the commercial semi state companies from a shareholder perspective, and will identify possible synergies between investment programmes of the different State companies, ESB, Bord Gais, EirGrid, Bord na Mona and Coillte. The NewERA approach will enable us to get the best value and efficiency in the development of energy, water and broadband infrastructure, and help to make Ireland a better place to do business and create jobs.