Written Answers Nos. 128-135
128. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the target of his Department and subsidiary offices throughout the country regarding employment of persons with disabilities in the special category; if the target is being achieved; the total number of employees in that category currently and the percentage of the total workforce in his Department that it represents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24619/13]
View answerThe Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in common with all other civil service Departments and Offices, fully implements the Government’s policy on the employment of people with a disability.
The Disability Act 2005 provides that public bodies shall, as far as practicable, take all reasonable steps to promote and support people with disabilities. It also provides a framework for monitoring the employment target, currently set at 3% in all public bodies, through Departmental monitoring committees.
The 2012 survey of my Department took place earlier this year. In total, 15 people or 4.1% of all staff disclosed a disability as defined under the Disability Act 2005.
129. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will abandon the attempt to raise, a relatively small amount of money in relation to the total that could be accrued from selling of the States forestries and its crop of timber; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24744/13]
View answerOn foot of the Government’s decision last year that a concession for the harvesting rights to Coillte’s forests be considered for sale, an inter-Departmental Steering Group was established, comprising representatives of my Department, the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and NewERA, to progress the proposed transaction and advise on how it should be implemented.
The Steering Group has worked closely with Coillte to analyse the various financial, policy and technical issues that arise in the context of a sale of harvesting rights. These covered all of the concerns that have been raised by various interest groups, including, amongst others, the issue of public access to the forests, replanting obligations to ensure the continued existence of our forests, harvesting policy, the issue of supply of timber to sawmills, as well as the implications for a post-transaction Coillte. In this context, the Steering Group also met with representatives of the Coillte Board and management, representatives of the Coillte Group of Unions, and the Chairman and members of the Irish Timber Council.
A number of detailed financial, technical and other specialist reports were also prepared for Coillte in late 2012 by external specialist consultancy bodies, in full consultation with the Board of Coillte and its executive management, which have also been considered by the Steering Group.
The Steering Group has now reported to the Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine and myself in relation to its work to date. It is our intention to bring a memorandum to Government on this matter in the near future.
130. Deputy John Halligan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a full list of national monuments in State care that are closed due to renovations or lack of funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19428/13]
View answerThere are a total of almost 1,000 individual National Monuments in State care at approx 768 locations around the country. These are managed and maintained by the OPW and include both sites which are in full State ownership and others which are privately-owned but where Guardianship arrangements exist and where the OPW provides maintenance services. This arrangement is provided for under the various National Monuments Acts. A small number of sites included in the list have National Monuments which are State owned and others which are privately held at the same location. The full list of the National Monuments in State care is available to view at http://www.archaeology.ie/NationalMonuments/NationalMonumentsinStatecarebycounty/.
As a general policy, OPW facilitates visitor access to as many National Monument sites as possible. However, access is not always feasible because of a range of issues including physical location, risks associated with dangerous structures and restrictions imposed in some cases by landowners who may wish to limit access, either temporarily or more longer term, by reason of accident risk, livestock etc. OPW would estimate that approx 10% of the National Monument sites in its care are not accessible at any given time for various reasons.
As part of its remit, the OPW also provides enhanced visitor access, together with Guide facilities in some cases, at 70 of the more prominent visitor locations nationally. These sites, some of which operate on a seasonal basis, will all continue to be open throughout the main 2013 visitor season.
There is one location only (King John's Castle, Carlingford, Co. Louth) where we are about to start a major project and where the entire site (which was formerly available to view on application to a local Keyholder) will be closed on safety grounds for the duration of the works. Apart from this instance, there are no other locations currently in the National Monuments properties managed by the OPW which are normally open but which are currently wholly inaccessible by reason of works, though in a number of locations where conservation or maintenance works are underway, it is obviously necessary from time to time to limit the areas where the public can access.
131. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which the Public Procurement (Frameworks Agreements) circular 06/12 will be used by his Department; if he has considered the way in which any investment made under the procurement process might deliver work for companies based here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24769/13]
View answerUnder EU law, public contracts above a certain values must be advertised EU-wide and awarded to the most competitive tender in an open and objective process. The aim is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers value for money. It would be a breach of the rules for a public body to favour or discriminate against particular candidates on grounds of location or nationality and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.
Reform of public procurement is one of the major projects of key strategic importance in the Government’s Public Service Reform Plan, which was published in November 2011. Procurement of supplies and services accounts for around €9 billion of current spending by the State per annum. This represents a very significant portion of overall spending and it is, therefore, essential that the Public Service achieves maximum value for money and operational efficiency in its approach to public procurement.
The National Procurement Service (NPS) has put in place a number of national arrangements designed to secure better value for money from leveraging the public service’s buying power in relation to a range of goods and services that are commonly purchased across the public service. These national arrangements have benefits that include:
- cash savings;
- administrative savings from reduced duplication of tendering;
- greater purchasing expertise;
- improved consistency; and,
- enhanced service levels.
In some instances the take up of the NPS arrangements has been low. In order to increase the usage of the NPS arrangements and thereby secure best value for money, the Government decided that it should be mandatory for public service bodies to use specified national procurement arrangements. Last year Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued Circular 06/12 which implements the Government decision by making it a mandatory requirement for public service bodies to avail of specified national arrangements put in place by the NPS. These national arrangements will secure best value for money and facilitate contracting authorities to deliver services within their budgetary constraints.
While the key purpose of Circular 6/12 is to enable the State to do more with less by aggregating procurement to secure better value for money, it is worth noting that such aggregation arrangements can be implemented in a manner that achieves value for money with a minimal negative impact, or indeed a positive impact, on SMEs. While a number of the categories of goods and services mandated under the Circular are suited to single supplier national arrangements, these need not be accepted as the norm. The greater use, where appropriate, of multi-supplier frameworks can address local supplier issues while also ensuring on-going cost competitiveness of the framework itself. Such multi-supplier frameworks may also offer SMEs the opportunity to participate in national level contracts, thereby offering valuable reference work when competing for public procurement contracts in other jurisdictions.
I would add that National Procurement Service tender documentation has been developed to encourage the participation of SMEs. For example, the contract for office supplies was divided into three individual lots for Stationery, ICT Consumables and Paper. SMEs that believed the scope of the competitions were beyond their technical or business capacities were encouraged to explore the possibilities of forming relationships with other SMEs or with larger enterprises. Through such relationships they could participate and contribute to the successful implementation of any contracts that resulted from these competitions and therefore increase their social and economic benefits.
Larger enterprises were also encouraged to consider the practical ways that SMEs could be included in their proposals to maximise the social and economic benefits of the contracts that result from these tenders. For example, the indigenous company, which won the Stationery contract, with an estimated value of €10m per annum, is sourcing up to 60% of their products using 136 local agents and manufacturers.
Furthermore, in order to encourage greater SME participation the NPS, over the past three years, has conducted a targeted programme of education for suppliers who wish to learn more about doing business with the Irish Public Service. This programme consists of seminars, workshops and large scale 'meet the buyer' events hosted nationwide. To date the NPS has facilitated workshops and presented at seminars to over 4,500 SMEs nationwide. Parallel with these events the NPS also works closely with business representative bodies such as ISME and IBEC to provide briefings for their members.
Whilst the government want better value for money for our substantial procurement spend we also want Irish SMEs, where necessary, to form alliances and networks to ensure they can tender on a competitive basis for this work.
132. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of persons to date that have received payments under the Connect Ireland initiative; the total amount that has been paid out; the largest payment to a person; the estimated number of jobs that have been created under the initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24740/13]
View answerThe “Succeed in Ireland” initiative is managed by Connect Ireland under a contract with IDA. The initiative provides for the payment of a “finder’s fee” to anybody who acted as an “introducer” to a foreign company which subsequently established an internationally traded service in Ireland. The reward scheme provides that IDA will pay up to €4,000 ex VAT per sustainable job created. A “sustainable” job is defined as a job that has been in place for 2 years.
Since the launch of the initiative in 2012, 6 projects have been approved with the potential to create 165 jobs. As fees are payable only in respect of a job that has been in place for 2 years, no payments have been made under the Initiative to date.
133. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs that have been created by the Action Plan for Jobs since the introduction of that policy; and the effect, if any, the policy has had on creating employment in the domestic economy. [24565/13]
View answerIn the Action Plan for Jobs, the Government has set a target of having 100,000 more people at work by 2016. When we launched the first Action Plan in February 2012, I said that the transformation required by our economy would not come through one big bang solution, but through deliberate and determined action across all areas of Government and the private sector.
One year into the Action Plan for Jobs process, we can see the evidence that the strategy and architecture are working. There were 270 individual actions committed to last year, to improve the operating environment for businesses, provide an impetus for emerging sectors, support export growth, and remove barriers to employment-creation across the economy. Over 90% of these actions were completed during 2012.
More importantly, there was a stabilisation in jobs numbers in the last six months of 2012. The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) for Quarter 4 of 2012 showed the first annual increase in employment since the middle of 2008. Last year, 12,000 jobs were created in the private sector, particularly in export-oriented companies which have been the focus of the Action Plan for Jobs. This compares to the 250,000 private sector jobs lost in the three years before this Government took office.
Enterprise Ireland and IDA client companies created almost 10,000 net jobs between them last year, through their focus on enterprise, innovation and exporting. This was the best performance of the agency client companies in many years.
I acknowledge that job losses continue to occur in parts of the domestic economy. However, we need to bring about a re-structuring of the economy based on strong foundations, and appropriate levels of activity that are sustainable in the longer-term.
This year’s Action Plan for Jobs includes 333 actions for delivery across all Government Departments and 46 Agencies or Offices. In addition to continuing to support export-oriented growth, the Plan includes a number of measures to support the domestic economy. These include actions relating to the Retail and Construction sectors, supporting small and micro-enterprises through the new Local Enterprise Office structure, improving access to finance for businesses including SMEs in the domestic economy, and improving our cost competitiveness.
As a small open economy, Ireland is heavily influenced by developments in international markets. However, the merit of the Action Plan for Jobs is that every year, each Department is required to focus on changes that can be brought about to make a practical contribution to the target of supporting the creation of 100,000 extra jobs in the economy by 2016.
134. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will support the I-LOFAR Project that promotes science, education, rural development and tourism, and innovation and university links (details supplied). [24572/13]
View answerLOFAR is a €150m network of radio telescopes that is currently being deployed across northern Europe. The project is predominantly in the field of astrophysics and it will enable scientists to study the early universe, discover new planets and monitor the Sun’s effect on the Earth.
LOFAR is expected to give new views of the Universe and inspire young scientists and engineers. The proposers indicate that the impact of LOFAR on a wide range of astrophysical topics will be immense – revolutionising the study of transient stars and galaxies; enabling the first studies into the early universe after the Big Bang; completing the most extensive surveys of galaxies at low frequencies; and providing a new insight into the Sun-Earth connection. LOFAR will have applications in geophysics, meteorology, and agriculture.
I-LOFAR is the proposal, entitled Irish Low Frequency Array, to build a cutting-edge radiotelescope at Birr Castle Demesne, County Offaly, thereby allowing Ireland to join the International LOFAR network. Indicative overall costs for the project here are thought to be in excess of €2m and there would also be ongoing associated annual maintenance costs. The I-LOFAR project proposal is being led by Dr. Peter Gallagher, a solar physicist at the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin. A proposal was submitted by Trinity College Dublin in relation to the I-LOFAR project under the SFI Infrastructure 2012 call but the proposal did not attain a sufficiently high ranking in the review process to warrant funding in that particular competition. This does not preclude any new bids being made by Trinity College or other colleges for the I-LOFAR project under any future Exchequer-supported competitive research calls.
The recognition that a country of Ireland’s size can only excel in a focused number of fields of research is increasingly acknowledged. The Report of the Research Prioritisation Steering Group, formally adopted by Government in 2012, aims to accelerate the delivery of economic outcomes from Government investment in public research organisations by aligning future competitive public investment by research funders to 14 opportunity areas. Astrophysics is not one of the designated 14 priority areas, although it is accepted to be of some relevance to the information and communications technologies fields.
To realise the full impact of our research investment, detailed action plans have been developed for each of the 14 priority areas. The action plans, now being implemented, focus on ensuring that there is coherence in the approach to funding in these areas amongst funding agencies, that the research base is aligned with enterprise needs, including development of appropriate skills and that the wider ecosystem for innovation is supportive. The action plans are live documents that will continuously evolve so that they remain current and ensure a dynamic, responsive environment for innovation and technology development. The report calls for ongoing review of priority areas on a regular basis to ensure their continued relevance and to also ensure that new opportunities are identified. As well as aligning funding to the 14 areas, the actions identify wider ecosystem or framework conditions that need to be addressed to allow investment in the Priority Area to yield the optimum return.
135. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the target of his Department and subsidiary offices throughout the country regarding employment of persons with disabilities in the special category, and whether the target is being achieved; the total number of employees in that category currently and the percentage of the total workforce in his Department that it represents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24617/13]
View answerPart 5 of the Disability Act 2005 sets out the following obligations on Government Departments and public service bodies with regard to the employment of people with disabilities.
- Public bodies must, insofar as practicable, take all reasonable measures to promote and support their employment of people with disabilities.
- Public bodies shall ensure, unless there are good reasons for not doing so, that at least 3% of their employees are people with disabilities.
- Public bodies must report on an annual basis to a statutory monitoring committee in their parent Department on the number of people with disabilities in their employment and the measures they are taking to promote and support their employment. The monitoring committees in turn submit their reports on such compliance to the Minister of their parent Department and the National Disability Authority (NDA).
Under the Disability Act, public bodies staffed by civil servants report via the Monitoring Committee in Department of the Public Expenditure and Reform, while all other public bodies report via the Monitoring Committee in their parent Departments. Public bodies must report to their Monitoring Committees by 31st March each year. The Monitoring Committees must then report to their respective Minister’s and the National Disability Authority by the 30th June. As the Monitoring Committees have not yet reported on the 2012 figures, the latest figures available in respect of my Department and the bodies within its remit are the 2011 figures listed in the table below.
|
- |
Total Employees 2011 |
No of employees with a disability 2011 |
% of employees with a disability 2011 |
|
Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation |
818 |
54 |
6.6% |
|
Labour Relations Commission |
50 |
5 |
10% |
|
National Consumer Agency |
40 |
4 |
10% |
|
Competition Authority |
42 |
1 |
2.4% |
|
County and City Enterprise Boards (35 bodies) |
130.5 |
3 |
2.3% |
|
Enterprise Ireland |
719 |
22 |
3.0% |
|
Forfás |
105.5 |
7 |
6.6% |
|
Health & Safety Authority |
182 |
5 |
2.7% |
|
IDA Ireland |
264 |
13 |
4.9% |
|
Injuries Board |
69 |
0 |
0.0% |
|
InterTrade |
43 |
1 |
2.3% |
|
Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority |
14 |
0 |
0.0% |
|
National Standards Authority of Ireland |
141 |
6 |
4.2% |
|
Science Foundation Ireland |
49 |
0 |
0.0% |
|
Shannon Development |
122 |
6 |
4.9% |
