My second motion at yesterday’s (19th Dec) MD meeting, ‘That the council clarify if the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District has an expert representative on the Local Enterprise Office, Evaluation and Approvals Committee, how members of the committee are recruited and remunerated and if the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District is not represented, that the council consider that either all municipal districts or no municipal district are represented on the committee.

Report: The Evaluation and Approvals Committee provides an impartial assessment of the requests for grant funding. Members serve in an unpaid capacity and were appointed following a public call for suitable members to serve on the committee.

The Role of the Committee

The membership of the Evaluation and Approvals committee brings together a wealth of experience across a diversity of areas of business expertise.

All projects being considered for financial support will be evaluated by the Evaluation and Approvals Committee and all projects under €50,000 may be approved by this committee in line with national enterprise policy. All projects over €50,000 will be evaluated and if endorsed by the Evaluations and Approvals Committee, recommended to the Enterprise Ireland Jobs Expansion Fund Committee for final approval.

The current membership is a follows

Peter Carey, Chief Executive, Kildare County Council

Charles Carri, John P Greely & Co.

James Cox, ex-BOI

Deirdre O’Neill, Enterprise Ireland

Declan Duke, IPC Consulting

Liam Doyle, AIB

Clodagh Huges, Bank of Ireland

Joe Moore, Maynooth University