Written answers

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Departmental Agencies Data

Photo of Maurice QuinlivanMaurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her Department has received requests for additional staff or funding in 2017 from the IDA, Enterprise Ireland or InterTradeIreland. [30108/17]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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An additional €3million was secured in respect of Pay in Budget 2017 and is being targeted specifically to assist in our response to the evolving Brexit scenario. It is enabling the Department and, primarily, our Agencies recruit some 40 to 50 additional staff to supplement existing staffing numbers.  These numbers may grow as Agencies allocate additional Own Resource Income, by agreement with the Department, to recruit further staff to work on "Brexit-related" activity.  My Department is proactively engaged with the Agencies most notably Enterprise Ireland (EI), IDA Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) in relation to the individual sanction and recruitment processes. To date, EI has recruited 13 additional staff, IDA Ireland have recruited an additional four staff, while SFI and the HSA are progressing their recruitment processes.

In so far as InterTradeIreland (ITI) is concerned oversight and funding of ITI is a joint responsibility of my Department and the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy. My Department provided additional funding for ITI for Brexit related work in 2017. We have not however received any formal requests for additional staff resources this year. My Department will continue to engage with ITI and with our counterpart Department in Northern Ireland on resourcing issues in the time ahead.

As we progress the 2018 "estimates" process, and on an ongoing basis, my Department will keep under review the adequacy of resources available for staffing having regard to the other demands on my Department and family of Agencies given our wide remit.

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