Tag Archives: Minister of State Pat Breen

MINISTER OF STATE Pat Breen has explained that the reasoning behind  Enterprise Ireland’s decision to pay for a €4,398 flight from the US was in an effort to help him attend a family wedding in Malaga, Spain. Deputy Breen was asked by Enterprise Ireland to participate in its inaugural life sciences trade mission to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul in Minnesota in September 2016. “Previous to this request, I had booked personal flights to attend a family wedding in Spain. The end of the trade mission clashed with the weekend wedding, which I had already committed to attend, so I had to turn down the Enterprise Ireland invitation initially. “However, as the trade mission was deemed to be of significant importance to Ireland’s indigenous life sciences sector and would benefit from the support of a ministerial presence, Enterprise Ireland requested that I attend and remain in the US to complete the final engagements of the visit and …

The Minister of State with responsibility for Employment, Trade, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen said the Department of Housing has approved support capital funding of €45,600 for the purchase of six apartments in Ennis. “The €45,000, which is 10 per cent of the cost of the Loreto Apartments in Ennis, will be provided to the Approved Housing Body (AHB) – CHI, by Clare County Council to secure their purchase for social housing. The funding will then be reimbursed to the council by the Department,” said Minister Breen. “This Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding is capital support provided to AHBs, by local authorities, to assist with the financing of the construction or acquisition of units that will be provided for social housing use,” said the Clare minister of state. CALF is a loan facility that can support up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the project, where the units will be provided under …