asked the Taoiseach (a) the terms of reference (b) the remuneration paid to and (c) the status of the special projects manager at his Department to whom reference is regularly made in media reports.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Departmental Special Projects Manager.
5.
The officer in question is on secondment from the Industrial Development Authority to advise and assist from his specialised industrial development background on projects likely to give extra employment particularly those arising across the semi-State sector and those involving more than one Department. He retains the same salary, conditions of employment and status as apply to a divisional manager with the Industrial Development Authority.
Will the Taoiseach tell the House if this projects manager recently received a project with regard to an underground development in O'Connell Street, Dublin?
No.
Would that sort of development where a local authority is involved come under the aegis of this projects manager, and is local democracy being bypassed? What are the functions of this projects manager?
The Deputy should not worry about things like that. First, he is not a projects manager but a person given to me on loan by the IDA because we recognise the need to help progress certain projects which cross departmental lines and demarcation and also because there is a view in the Central Review Committee on the Programme for National Recovery that something more should be done to help to co-ordinate the efforts of the semi-State sector. As the Deputy may know, individual semi-State companies are responsible to individual Ministers but situations arise where individual semi-State companies should co-operate with each other and to that extent they cross departmental lines of responsibility. It seemed to a lot of people to be desirable that somebody should have a general role of co-ordinating the efforts of the semi-State sector where development projects and the creation of employment opportunities may be concerned.
I accept the Taoiseach's assurance that the O'Connell Street development has not been considered by this projects manager. Is the Taoiseach aware that the press reports on this matter said that it had been considered and will he agree that this projects manager, or whatever the title is, does not have a role in local authority development?
The project is one which comes entirely within the ambit of the local authority, but if it were a question of some desirable project which happened to have the potential to create employment impinging on the area of responsibility of a State company and a local authority and perhaps a Government Department, then I would visualise this officer, now attached to my Department, as having a role to try to co-ordinate the efforts of those concerned. The situation with regard to employment is urgent enough to demand that we neglect no opportunity to provide employment. If something can be achieved by helping to co-ordinate the activities of different agencies of Government in the provision of employment that is entirely desirable.