Written Answers Nos. 674-683
674. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she is satisfied that data protection issues do not arise when work contracted out to a consultancy that involves departmental staff or possible recruitment of staff is involved; and the protections taken when outside agencies are involved in the recruitment process for public service work. [16160/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is fully aware of its responsibilities in respect of the processing of personal data as provided for in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003.
My Department’s Data Protection Policy outlines the procedures that must be followed by all staff in the Department and its Offices whose duties entail processing personal data. This Policy outlines best practice in relation to processing of data by staff within the Department and its Offices in instances where personal data is provided to an external body for processing. The objective of the policy is to ensure that personal data held by my Department and its Offices is processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003. Responsibility for compliance with this policy rests with the heads of the individual business units and all business units are aware of their responsibilities in this regard.
As my Department does not have a recruitment licence, the recruitment of staff is handled for it by the Public Appointments Service (PAS). Internal promotion competitions are organised by HR Unit without the involvement of outside consultancy.
Since my appointment there has been one occasion where the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement used an employment agency for the recruitment of a legal secretary on a temporary basis. The contract put in place included a general clause requiring the contractor to comply with all legal requirements and a detailed section on confidentiality, including specific reference to the confidentiality requirements surviving completion of the contract. I am satisfied that data protection issues were adequately and appropriately addressed as part of these arrangements.
675. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if applications for funds (details supplied) will be available to private entities; the criteria for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16268/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2017, my Department, through Enterprise Ireland, has committed to support the Regional Action Plans for Jobs and provide investment of up to €60m over the period to 2020.
A Regional Competitive Funding Initiative administered by Enterprise Ireland will be launched shortly. The overarching aim is to drive balanced regional enterprise development throughout the country.
The funding will support major new collaborative and innovative initiatives that can make a significant impact on enterprise development and to build the USP capabilities that can sustain and add to employment at a county, regional and national level.
Eligible applicants will be not for profit entities that comprise national/regional, county and local stakeholders, with a purpose of benefitting the wider needs of the community and region/nation.
Such entities can be led by private or public organisations and may also include Higher Education Institutes, Semi State Commercial bodies or Local Enterprise Development Groups.
My plan over the coming months and years is to work in support of organisations that come forward with good projects to boost enterprise and job creation in their regions.
Applications for funding will be invited through a public call for submission of projects. This will be announced in the National Press over the coming weeks.
676. Deputy Colm Brophy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of requests her Department received for material to be made available in Braille format in each of the years from 2014 to 2016; the number of these requests which were accommodated by her Department; the cost implication; and the person or body which provided the translation service. [16382/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraNo requests were received by my Department and its Offices for material to be made available in braille format in each of the years 2014 to 2016.
677. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when she envisages Dáil Éireann ratifying the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, as is required in order for it to become EU legislation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16440/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraOn the 15th February 2017, the European Parliament voted in favour of the provisional application of EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Provisional application is a standard part of trade agreements and allows those parts of the agreement for which the EU has competence to come into force. The provisions relating to investment protection and investment dispute settlement are excluded from provisional application.
The full entering into force of the agreement will be subject to a Council decision with the consent of the European Parliament and by the approval of all Member States through the relevant national ratification procedures.
I fully support provisional application of the Agreement. I am of the view that there should be no impediment to Irish companies immediately taking advantage of the provisions of CETA including eliminating tariffs on almost all of key exports, access to the Canadian procurement market, easing regulatory barriers and ensuring more transparent rules for market access.
I believe that it is important to wait to see the benefits of CETA come into being, before CETA is put before the Dáil for ratification. Then we can have a fully informed, evidence based debate on the value of the Agreement to Ireland.
My Department is already working with our agencies and Business Groups to ensure that Irish firms take early advantage of the terms of the Agreement. I will be leading a trade mission to Canada in late May to promote the opportunities provided by the Agreement.
678. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the name of the body tasked with the oversight of the national intellectual property protocol; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16554/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraKnowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI), established by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with the Irish Universities Association, is the custodian of the national IP Protocol on behalf of my Department.
The Protocol is implemented in partnership with research funding Departments and agencies and other stakeholders. The Protocol describes the ways in which enterprise can expect to work with the State-funded research base. It applies to Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and to enterprise.
All knowledge producing organisations, public and private, have the potential to generate intellectual property. A major focus of this Government is to ensure an increase in research activity and associated investment in research, based on the widely held understanding, across developed economies, that commitment to research and development generates economic and social returns.
KTI was established by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with the Irish Universities Association (IUA) in late 2013. It was created as the result of the recommendation from a Government-led task force that reviewed the state of "business to research base" engagement in 2012 and is embedded in the Government Report ‘Putting Public Research to work for Ireland’.
KTI’s role is to make it simple for enterprise to engage with the State funded research base in Ireland through increasing visibility of opportunity and offering consistent approaches to transactions. Clarity in respect of IP policy assists both public bodies and companies to do business more efficiently and successfully.
As part of its role, and in consultation with my Department, KTI reviewed and updated the National IP Protocol in 2016 (first published in 2012) setting out the policy and the framework for engagement between industry and the research base. To do this, an extensive review and consultation on the Protocol in practice commenced in 2014. A revised IP Protocol was presented for Government approval in late 2015 and published in January 2016.
Ireland’s national strategy is based on developing excellent science in our universities, IOTs and other research performing organisations and ensuring that science forms the foundations of a vibrant knowledge transfer ecosystem which involves quality teaching and learning drawing from the frontiers of knowledge and also effective collaborations between academia and enterprise.
679. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if there are circumstances whereby the active service exemption from the relevant statutory obligations can be applied in the month prior to active service starting (details supplied); and if so, the specifics of those circumstances. [16569/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraSection 6 (2) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (2005 Act) allows for an exemption from relevant statutory provisions for members of the Defence Forces in the context of certain specific criteria. The criteria cover when a member of the Defence Forces is on active service within the meaning of section 5 of the Defence Act 1954 or deemed to be on active service within the meaning of section 4(1) of the Defence (Amendment) (No 2) Act 1960 i.e. when engaged in action in the course of operational duties at sea; or when engaged in operations in aid of the civil powers. Furthermore, under section 6 (2) (d) of the 2005 Act this exemption applies when members of the Defence Forces are engaged in training directly associated with such active service. The 2005 Act is not prescriptive on the time frame or duration of training for active service.
Therefore when a member of the Defence Forces is engaged in training, directly associated with active service, to be undertaken for any period of time in advance of departure on active service, then the provisions of section 6 (2) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 do apply.
680. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she will examine the redundancies announced at a company (details supplied) under the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act 2007 and determine if these are carried out to replace the employees with workers on lower pay or less favourable terms and conditions; and if she will report on this matter. [16672/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraArising from its obligations under the Protection of Employment Act 1977, the company making the redundancies wrote to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on 7th February 2017 to give notice of proposed collective redundancies and the opening of the consultation process required under that Act. I am informed that consultations with employees are ongoing. The company subsequently clarified to my officials that it does not intend to replace those selected for redundancy with workers on lower pay or less favourable terms and conditions and that the redundant roles within their Irish business will no longer function in the State. On this basis it would appear the proposed redundancies would not come within the meaning of exceptional collective redundancies.
Under the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act 2007 it is either the employees' representative or the employer who triggers whether a proposal to create collective redundancies should be referred to the Redundancy Panel. If it is the employees' representative that requests the matter to be referred to the Redundancy Panel, they must act with the approval of the majority of those whom they represent.
I can confirm that my Department has not received a request under the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act 2007, that the proposed collective redundancies be referred to the Redundancy Panel for a determination.
681. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 201 of 29 March 2017, if she will provide a copy of all the reports submitted to her by private investigation firms engaged by her Department in 2016; the reason reports were not produced by firms engaged in each of the years 2012 to 2015; if public procurement and-or spending rules were complied with in engaging these firms; the reason all of these firms were hired; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16684/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraPayments made to the private investigation firms listed in my response were in relation to the contracting of these firms by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to serve summonses, in instances where there were difficulties in locating the individuals to whom summonses were to be served. Public spending rules were adhered to when engaging these firms.
Resolve Ireland, which was listed in the table for 2016, is a company which provides confidential services in the HR and industrial relations arena. It is not a private investigation firm and was included in error in my response to the Deputy's Question No. 201 of 29 March 2017.
682. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of meetings she has had with British companies that are looking to retain access to the Single Market after Brexit and are possibly looking to relocate to another member state; if none, the reason therefor; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16768/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI engage on an ongoing basis with overseas companies - including those with operations in the UK - regarding the possibility of new or expanded investments in Ireland. IDA Ireland also continues to identify new potential sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the country, whether Brexit-related or not.
Overseas businesses are attracted to Ireland on account of a variety of different factors. Our membership of the EU, and our continuing access to the EU single market, is undoubtedly one such key factor. But it's also the case that companies are drawn here by many other reasons, including our talented workforce, excellent infrastructure, pro-enterprise policy environment and our long established track record as a successful home to global business. It's my experience that it's usually a combination of these points that ultimately helps convince overseas businesses to establish or expand here.
The Government and the IDA will continue to pursue all avenues that could lead to increased FDI in Ireland, whether the companies concerned are based in the UK, the USA or elsewhere. A key priority in the time ahead will be converting the interest shown to date by potential investors into new projects on the ground.
683. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on a matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16047/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has published a list of Early Years qualifications which shows all qualifications approved by my Department for work in the Early Years sector to date. This list can be found on www.dcya.gov.ie.
Where a qualification is not published on the list of DCYA Early Years Recognised Qualifications but the holder considers it to be an appropriate Major Award at or above Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications or equivalent, they can apply to have their qualification assessed for approval.
It is my understanding that an application was submitted on behalf of the person in question to my Department under the Early Years qualifications assessment process and that this matter has now been resolved.
