This week, the reply I received from the Minister for Finance included some interesting figures. Each person’s share of the national debt is €28,750, their share of the national deficit this year is €4065 and their share of debt servicing in 2012 is €1520. You can see his full reply here.

I also put questions to the Minister for Education on Ecommerce courses, the Minister for Social Protection on statutory sick pay and the Minister for Justice on establishing a property transaction register. To read all the latest questions and answers, click on the Parliamentary Questions page here.

Recently, I asked each Government Department about the number of staff on their respective redeployment pools, including agencies responsible to them, and how long such staff have been awaiting redeployment. I was curious to see how redeployment pools, a measure agreed as part of the Public Sector Agreement 2010 – 2014, were functioning. Below are the replies I received.

Finance: The Department has no redeployment pool.

Transport, Tourism and Sport: 2 staff on redeployment panel, 1 is on secondment to another organisation and the other is returning from career break.

– Additional Reply : The Dublin Port Company is not subject to Public Sector Agreement and therefore has no redeployment panel.

– Additional Reply: The Railway Procurement Agency is not subject to Public Sector Agreement and therefore has no redeployment panel.

– Additional Reply: The Dun Laoighaire Harbour Company is not subject to Public Sector Agreement and therefore has no redeployment panel.

– Additional Reply: The National Roads Authority has 3 staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply:  The National Transport Authority has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: CIE has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: The Road Safety Authority has 29 staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: Bus Eireann is not subject to Public Sector Agreement and therefore has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: The Railway Safety Commission has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: Dublin Bus has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply:  The Irish Aviation Authority is not subject to Public Sector Agreement and therefore has no staff awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: The Irish Sports Council has no staff awaiting redeployment.

Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: 2 staff on redeployment panel and the maximum waiting time is 2 months.

– Additioanl Reply: The IDA has no employees in their redeployment pool or awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: The Science Foundation has no staff in redeployment pool.

– Additional Reply: Labour Relations Commission has no redeployments pending.

– Additional Reply: The Competition Authority has no persons awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: The Health and Safety Authority has no persons awaiting redeployment.

– Additional Reply: Forfás has no staff awaiting redeployment.

Taoiseach: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Foreign Affairs: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Public Expenditure: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Social Protection: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Environment, Community and Local Government: 9 persons awaiting redeployment. 6 persons have been redeployed to other departments. The maximum time awaiting redeployment has been 15 months. This delay is the result of waiting for a suitable opening to fit the staff members’ specialties.

Justice: 12 persons awaiting redeployment.

Defence: 3 civil servants awaiting redeployment since October 2011 and 2 civilian employees awaiting redeployment since March 2012.

Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Children: No staff awaiting redeployment.

Health: No staff awaiting redeployment. In the health sector, redeployment is to be voluntary under the terms of the Public Sector Agreement and given the size of the sector, redeployments are within the sector itself. 4,500 were redeployed between April 2011 and March 2012. This was an increase on the 750 redeployments between April 2012 and March 2011.

Education: 68 Primary School teachers are awaiting redeployment. It is anticipated they will be redeployed in advance of the beginning of the academic year 2013. 26 Departmental staff are presently on the redeployment panel and so far the maximum waiting time has been 10 months.

Yesterday I raised The Smarter Transport Bill with Minister Leo Varadkar. I began drafting the Bill in 2011 and introduced it to the Dail on 25th October 2011. The Bill allows for local authorities to enact bye-laws establishing charging bays for electric cars on public roads and also to regulate and control parking for car club vehicles on public roads.

You can watch the Minister’s response here. For the full text of the Bill and an Explanatory Memo, click here.

I also took the opportunity to highlight the importance and potential of golf tours in Ireland following the recent success of the Irish Open, and you can watch my statement here.

CoderDojo is the Irish-founded international initiative that aims to help young people learn computer coding skills. To celebrate one year since the organisation was founded, there will be a Dojo in Leinster House on 18th July. Well done to Minister Ciaran Cannon for making it happen.

I met with James Whelton and Bill Liao, the people who came up with the idea, earlier this year. They explained to me how simple the concept was; all that was needed was a place to meet and a way to get connected. Since then, CoderDojo has gone from strength-to-strength with 104 such groups now meeting every Saturday around the country and around the world.

CoderDojo seeks to inspire a generation of young people to learn more about coding. Putting kids together in this environment has produced some incredible results, including the youngest i-Phone App developer in the world.

Read more about the event and what CoderDojo has achieved over the past year in this article on Silicon Republic here.

Last week I put Parliamentary Questions to Minsters on a number of issues. Among the questions put to the various Departments were: to ask the Minister for Environment about incentivising the purchase of electric cars, asking the Minister for Justice about applications for the Entrepreneur and Investment Visa Schemes and to ask Ministers how many staff were in their respective redeployment pools.

For a full list of Parliamentary Questions put to Ministers, click here.

Today, during the Dail debate on the Microenterpirse Loan Fund Scheme, I spoke on the importance of the Technology Visa; a specific visa for people working in the Tech sector, and the impact such a scheme would have on generating employment in Ireland.

You can watch my contribution here.

I also put Parliamentary Questions on this subject to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, see here, and the Minister for Justice, here.

Last Friday (22nd June), the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation published the Microenterprise Loan Fund Scheme. The Bill, which will be debated in the Dail this week, will see over €90 million in additional lending being made available to 5,500 micro-enterprises which is expected to create 7,700 jobs over 10 years.

The Scheme will initially facilitate €40 million to businesses employing not more than 10 people over the next five years, with provision for the scheme to be extended to provide an additional €50 million of lending over a further five years. Start-ups, sole traders and existing microenterprises will be eligible to apply for a loan under the Scheme.

The scheme is designed to provide loans, up to the value of €25,000,  for commercially viable proposals that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by banks, such as the absence of collateral.

For more information on the Microenterprise Loan Fund Scheme, click here.

Today I asked the Minister for Justice, in light of the closure of Harcourt Terrace Garda Station, to address the issue of the redistribution of Gardai in the local area, and especially with regard to maintaining Community Gardai in the Donnybrook/Ranelagh area. I also expressed my opinion that greater interaction with the Joint Policing Committee is needed to ensure there are adequate Garda numbers, effectively distributed throughout in Dublin South-East.

You can watch the Minister’s reply here or read the transcript below:

Eoghan Murphy: I fully support the Minister’s plans for policing in Dublin. However, it has come to my attention informally that with the closure of Harcourt Terrace there has been some difficulty in reallocating the gardaí stationed there to other parts of the city. Donnybrook Garda station, for example, has had its hours restricted and has lost its community garda. It is my understanding that if we could free up those resources we would be able, at least, to get the community garda back for Donnybrook. Could the Minister look into this matter and discover whether or not this is the case?

With the loss of resources in the city and elsewhere we will have to do much more work with JPCs. I know the Minister has been paying close attention to what they are doing but to help them to play a more important role, particularly with the loss of community gardaí, we need to put more resources into them, if possible.

Minister Shatter: I am sorry if my response to Deputy Murphy’s query sounds like a mantra. It is for the Garda Commissioner to determine where to allocate members arising out of the closure of Harcourt Street Garda station. I am aware of the Garda stations in Dublin to which members are, or have been, allocated. I cannot micromanage the community garda in Donnybrook. If there is a gap in that area I am sure the Commissioner will have regard to that. I am happy to follow up that matter for the Deputy with a simple query to the Commissioner and to revert to the Deputy with any information I obtain.

When, in August 1945, the Government of the day, through an Emergency Powers Order, addressed the question of members of the Defence Forces who had absented themselves during World War II by summarily dismissing them from the Defence Forces and disqualifying them for seven years from holding employment or office remunerated from the State’s Central Fund, individuals were not given a chance to explain their absence.  This remained the position following the transposition of the Emergency Powers Order into an Act of the Oireachtas in 1946.  No distinction was made between those who fought on the Allied side for freedom and democracy and those who absented themselves for other reasons.

In the almost 73 years since the outbreak of World War II, our understanding of history has matured.  We can re-evaluate actions taken long ago, free from the constraints that bound those directly involved and without questioning or revisiting their motivations.  It is time for understanding and forgiveness.  Also, at a time of greater insight and understanding of the shared history and experiences of Ireland and Britain, it is right that the role played by Irish veterans who fought on the Allied side be recognised and the rejection they experienced be understood.  To that end, this Government has now resolved to provide a legal mechanism that will provide an amnesty to those who absented themselves from our Defence Forces and fought with the Allied Forces in World War II and to provide a pardon to those who were individually court-martialled.  This will be achieved without undermining the general principle regarding desertion.  The proposed legislation, which I intend to introduce later this year, will provide that the pardon and amnesty does not give rise to any right or entitlement or to any liability on the part of the State.

In extending this amnesty and pardon, the Government would like to emphasise that it does not condone desertion and fully recognises, values and respects the contribution of all those who stood by their post with the Defence Forces and pledged their lives to defend this State’s integrity and sovereignty against any and all aggressors.