John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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77. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the funding allocated by his Department to organisations not audited directly by the Comptroller and Auditor General; the names of these organisations; the funding allocated to each over the past five years; the process in place to ensure that value for money is achieved and that the funding allocated is audited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38673/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, the allocations provided through each subhead of the Department’s Vote is, in the first instance, subject to the public financial guidelines and open to annual audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG). Likewise the enterprise agencies who receive funding from the Department are also subject to annual audit by the C&AG. It should also be borne in mind that across the Department and its agencies that there are multiple layers of auditing undertaken from time to time, spanning internal, external and EU audit teams. Obtaining value for money is uppermost in the financial management and overall operations of the Department and the agencies. There are very frequent evaluations of programme expenditure to ensure that best value for money and most appropriate policy interventions within available resources can be delivered from the public purse in delivering on the Department’s enterprise, regulation and innovation programmes. As part of the various funding models and payment operations, there are authorisation limits for payments and grant approvals levels across the Departmental Vote. A significant portion of the enterprise and innovation grants provided through the Department’s agencies involve competitive funding calls.

As regards organisations receiving funding from the Department who are not audited by the C&AG, there are a small number of such organisations and programmes which are listed in the table below, together with the attendant funding provided to these organisations/programmes since 2011.

Organisations / Programmes funded directly by the Department whereby the recipients do not fall under direct C&AGs audit responsibility

As can be seen from the table above the majority of the recipients listed are international organisations spanning research, trade and employment entities in the main. The Department pays Ireland’s annual membership contribution directly to the European Space Agency, the World Trade Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) , the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) , COST (European Co-operation in Science & Technology) and EUREKA. The above memberships typically cost in the range of €21 million to €22 million per annum with the funding provision typically being subject to an international agreement and oversight by the organisations financial committees usually involving an Irish delegate with voting rights.

COST is a means for European researchers, engineers and scholars to jointly develop their own ideas and new initiatives across all fields of science and technology through trans-European networking of nationally funded research activities.

EUREKA is a pan-european network for industrial research and development, aimed at strengthening European competitiveness by promoting 'market-driven' collaborative research and technology development.

The EMBL, EMBC, COST and EUREKA all receive some form of EU funding and all are therefore subject to stringent and regular EU audit checks. Ireland typically has at least one delegate per organisation to oversee Irish involvement, which includes financial oversight on the Irish contribution.

An annual provision of €108k is paid to the Irish Universities Association (IUA) under Subhead B4 of the Department’s Vote (Science & Technology Programme). This funding provision to the IUA is to assist with the hosting of the EURAXESS Ireland Office, which is part of an initiative involving both the European Commission and countries participating in the European Union's Framework Programmes for Research. The EURAXESS Services Centre helps researchers and their family to plan and organise their move to a foreign country, providing help in all matters related to mobility.

An annual grant is paid through Subhead C4 to assist the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in meeting the cost of providing its education, training and advisory service in the area of policy development, the provision of education and training supports to union officials and members, and advice to affiliated unions on particular issues.

The Trade Union Act 1975 is designed to facilitate amalgamations and transfers of engagements among trade unions by simplifying merger procedures and by making grants available from the Exchequer towards the costs incurred by unions in the process. The payment of grants is governed by Section 15 of the Act, as amended by Section 22 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990.

It is also the case that for a number of years in question, funding in the amount of €40k per annum was paid to support consumer related projects under Subhead C10.

As advised that whilst the aforementioned organisations/programmes are not directly audited by the C&AG, the respective subhead provisions from which the funding is provided are auditable by the C&AG on an annual basis.