Following a meeting with Clann Credo in October 2011, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education submitted a number of recommendations to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Richard
Bruton T.D.
The committee recommended that:
- Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation should be given specific responsibility for Social Enterprise. The Minister should be supported by a Social Enterprise Unit in the Department headed by an Assistant Secretary General.
- Enterprise Ireland (EI) should be instructed to recognise Social Enterprise and offers its support services to these organisations in the same way it does to other companies.
The Chairman of the Committee, Deputy Damien English invited Clann Credo to meet with the Committee to discuss its findings on the role of social finance in job creation and community regeneration, published in its recent report
From the Ground Up.
Clann Credo was represented by its Chief Executive, Paul O'Sullivan. He was joined by Jonathan Coburn, Director of THINK! Research for Social Change (a Scottish social enterprise) and Seamus Mulconry, Executive Director of Philanthropy Ireland.
The report, which was launched by Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in July 2011, makes a number of recommendations to government on developing the social economy to support recovery, its potential to create jobs, the lessons we can learn from Scotland and the role of LEADER.
It also recommends a number of initiatives to government to assist development of social enterprise and the social economy, including the development of Community Benefit Clauses (CBCs), Public Social Partnerships and Social Impact Investing.