The Government is not putting any “hard targets” on the amount of jobs it expects to create through a new initiative that gives financial rewards for members of the Irish diaspora who come up with successful ideas.
The scheme, which will be announced as part of next week’s jobs initiative, involves a finder’s fee of €3,000 for every job that results from the project.
Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton said the Government will not be “giving money away” and said the project will “be managed in a tight way” with money from within his department’s allocation.
"The IDA would have to be entirely satisfied that this was a bona fide new contact that they weren’t dealing with them already…the job would have to survive for a significant period before there would be any question of there being support,” he said.
Mr Bruton said the idea came from someone with “immense experience” in international business and the Government believe it well worth piloting.
“There are now huge social network opportunities opening up that become a different way of contacting people and reaching people...this is the Government tapping into that new resource.”
He said the 80 million people worldwide of Irish origin is “a huge resource” and the scheme is a way of extending the reach of the IDA.
“The truth is the IDA is a relatively small organisation, its hard for them to reach many of the smaller businesses where people of Irish origin perhaps would look afresh at Ireland as a place to make an investment.”
“We need to look at new ideas in this space and I think this is one well worth trying,” he added.
The initiative was first announced by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny during his visit to New York yesterday.
