Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will account for the delay in implementing nine measures of the action plan for jobs that were due in Quarter three of this year. [51876/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs contains over 270 individual actions to be delivered in 2012, spanning all Government Departments and 36 State agencies. The 270 actions are further broken down into Quarterly milestones or “measures”. Progress Reports on the delivery of these measures are published at the end of each Quarter. The third Progress Report on the Action Plan for Jobs was published on 17th October last. It showed that 218 (96%) of the 227 measures to be achieved in the first three Quarters of 2012 were delivered on time. Nine measures for completion in Quarter 3 were delayed. Three of these directly involve my Department. They relate to legislative measures covering:

- the extension of SFI’s remit to allow the agency to fund applied research,

- the proposed new structure for the employment rights institutions, and

- the Consolidated Companies Bill.

These pieces of legislation have been delayed for a number of reasons, including the detailed and complex nature of the legislation in question, the demand on resources in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, and the availability of time for legislative business in the Houses of the Oireachtas. However, I expect to publish the Consolidated Companies Bill by the end of the year and every effort is being made to ensure that the remaining legislation is progressed as quickly as possible.

One of the other measures which was delayed in Quarter 3 involves the introduction of a voluntary Code of Conduct for payments within the private sector. This measure is for delivery by the business sector. However, there has been positive engagement between my Department and business representative groups on the matter and I am confident that substantial progress will be made on the publication of a Code of Conduct in 2013. The remaining five measures fall under the remit of other Government Departments. Updates on these measures are included in the third Progress Report on the Action Plan for Jobs which is available on my Department’s website, www.enterprise.gov.ie.