Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 April 2015
334. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation regarding his Department's planned introduction of an early warning mechanism on key economic trends, and planned monthly data series to track employment and cost trends, if there was an analysis completed on the industrial relations implications where companies are unionised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15631/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Action Plan for jobs sets ambitious targets for job creation and enterprise growth over the period to 2018, most notably to achieve sustainable full employment with 2.1 million at work, to restore Ireland’s competitiveness and to continue to make progress to make Ireland the best small country in which to do business.
In the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs I have established a new framework for monitoring and tracking our performance in relation to key impacts and outcomes we are seeking to achieve in terms of jobs, exports, entrepreneurship and startups, market penetration and innovation, efficiency of public interaction with business, finance and access to talent.
I believe it is important that we track at an aggregate level the performance of the enterprise base in delivering on the ambitious jobs targets we have set and also identify the issues we need to address to better support enterprises, including in the area of the cost base. As part of this process we need to know the areas where we are performing well, but also to have the early warning of issues that could impact on our potential for growth.
In this context my Department is in the process of developing a monthly Dashboard of Statistics, gathering together the most relevant internal enterprise related data, together with national enterprise statistics and other indicators of enterprise performance as published by third parties. I believe this data can provide a timely snapshot of the enterprise base and performance and in time it would be of benefit to make some of that data as collected more widely available.
My Department currently collects a range of data through its enterprise agency network, regulatory and administrative functions that can provide an indication on the health of the enterprise base. These activities include for example the Companies Registration Office and the Patents Office, NERA, the Health and Safety Authority, the Workplace Relations Commission and others. My Department is also responsible for the issuing of work permits and receives information on redundancies notifications. The enterprise surveys activity previously carried out by Forfás are also now being undertaken by the Strategic Policy Division within my Department. In addition, the Strategic Policy Division continues to support the work of the National Competitiveness Council in preparing benchmarking and data rich reports.
The data being compiled for the Dashboard does not include any company specific data or information and nor is it intended that company specific data be included in the future. I will not be releasing data or information on individual named enterprises as part of this proposal. The confidentiality of any engagements between the Department or the development agencies will not be impacted. As we will not be publishing individual enterprise data as part of this initiative, there are no industrial relations issues arising.
