asked the Minister for Labour whether the appointment of forecasters of future job trends has yet been made; whether a management consultant firm has been appointed; and, if so, if he will give the name of the firm.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Future Job Trends.
2.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. With regard to the second part, Management Selection Ireland Limited has been engaged by my Department in connection with the recruitment of a Head of Manpower Forecasting.
Is it true that Management Selection Ireland Limited is a branch of a British firm of management consultants?
I am not very intimately acquainted with them. It is quite possible. If you want somebody to do a job, you have to get them to do the job.
Is the Minister aware that it is more than a possibility, that it is, in fact, a branch of a British firm of consultants and that there are native-owned Irish firms of management consultants?
Management selection?
Yes, to do the same job.
I am not aware of anybody who could do the job I wanted done.
Is the Minister saying that there is no Irish management selection firm that could do as good a job as this branch of a British firm?
What the Deputy wants is, first of all, a declared policy that we would never employ British people here and, secondly, that we would make sure that anybody we would employ would be Irish and the third thing he is implying is that if a man can say he is Irish, then, even though he might not be satisfactory, we would have to select him.
The position is that there are firms in this country who have equally as good a record as this British branch and it is a surprising situation.
It is an Irish branch.
Yes, of a British firm. There are Irish firms in this country who have equally as good a reputation, who are not being used.
I will investigate it but I do not think the Deputy is right. It is much easier to make such an allegation than it is to find out if you can get somebody to do the job. I did try to find out if there was in Ireland a firm who could do this job and I was not able to do so. If the Deputy can substantiate the allegation he is making, I shall certainly——
The Minister has made the allegation that there is no better firm.
I do not make the selection.
In fact, an English national has been deputed to make the selection.
The Deputy should be aware it may very easily be an English person who is appointed. There were protracted efforts made to find a person, and last year we had one man who finally could not take the position. We searched through ILO, OECD, the London School of Economics and other organisations. We made every attempt to find a suitable person. This is not a recruitment that can be done locally.
Could the Minister state if Deputy Lemass could fill the role with the 100,000 jobs he had?