FOREWORD

S EC RETA RY GENERA L DR O RLA IGH Q UINN

This is the final Annual Report on the Department’s Statement of Strategy 2018 to 2021 and outlines the progress made by the Department on achieving our goals and objectives in 2020. A new Statement of Strategy for the period 2021 to 2023 was agreed in January 2021.

The Department faced an unprecedented series of business challenges in 2020, particularly in addressing the major impacts arising from Brexit and COVID-19. We also managed organisational changes and transfer of new functions following the election of the new Government in June 2020.

As we started the year, our focus was on Brexit and trade where we led on assisting businesses through financial schemes and advisory services; we also provided analysis and advice across government on the implications of the EU negotiations. This work continued as a major priority as we also switched our attention to the COVID-19 crisis. A dedicated COVID-19 Unit was established, ensuring a coordinated and coherent approach to the pandemic and its many challenges across the Department. We took immediate and responsive action to enable staff to work from home and our teams moved, at short notice, from a predominantly office-based operating model to full remote working for all but a minority of staff, where their work could not be done remotely.

It is a huge credit to all members of our team that we responded so quickly and flexibly to meet the urgent needs of enterprise. We redeployed staff and created new roles as we developed and implemented new financial schemes and advisory services, regulatory changes to company law, new health and safety protocols in the workplace and a wide range of workplace relations and employment initiatives, such as virtual courtrooms in the WRC and Labour Court. We also worked collaboratively with many other Government Departments and agencies to assist in the national effort; we fast-tracked and prioritised employment permits for front-line health service workers; we took a leading role in assisting the HSE in the sourcing of PPE during a time of great pressure and we redeployed staff on temporary reassignments to areas of the public service where additional resources were needed.

The doubling of our budget enabled us, working with our Agencies and Offices, to deliver much needed assistance to the enterprise sector. This required detailed analysis and delivery of appropriate schemes to assist businesses, sectors and regions at every stage of the pandemic. We also established a new Enterprise Information Centre and communication approaches that enabled us to move online and connect with all our stakeholders. We published extensive guidance, including our Guide to Supports for Businesses, the National Work Safely Protocol and guidance on safe shopping. We also maintained a major focus on

trade and global relationships and our overseas team were to the forefront in assisting us in our international relationships and working closely with the European Union Commission and Member States to bring several trade agreements to a successful conclusion. We also continued to deliver across all other important areas of our business programme, including major policy areas of digital, climate, remote working and the right to disconnect.

Extensive and ongoing contacts with our stakeholders was a priority for us during 2020. We met regularly with employers, employees and representative groups, including the Enterprise Forum, the Retail Forum, the SME Taskforce, the Company Law Review Group and the Labour Employer Economic Forum, as well as a wide range of other groups to assist and inform the Department’s ongoing responses to Brexit and COVID-19. These stakeholder engagements were extremely valuable in informing us of the needs of businesses, the impact of our measures and how improvements could be made.

During 2020, following the change of Government, the Department was renamed from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The trade promotion function was transferred to this Department from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and employment rights and redundancy and insolvency policy transferred from the Department of Social Protection. The Department also assumed responsibility for the Low Pay Commission. We have also taken on responsibility for the Balance for Better Business Group from the Department of Justice, and Trading Online Vouchers from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment. For each of these new areas of work, we established teams and developed new priorities and work plans, all of which are now being implemented. Some new priorities include development of sick pay legislation, redundancy policy, strengthened trade promotion and outreach, and a stronger focus on gender issues across all our remit. With effect from 1 January 2021, certain research and innovation functions, including Science Foundation Ireland and the Tyndall Institute, transferred to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. We will miss our science and innovation colleagues but look forward to continued collaborative working and we wish them every success in their new Department.

Across the Civil Service, we have taken a leading role on innovation. Through our ‘Innovate@ETE’ team, all staff are fully engaged and encouraged to make positive changes to how we work and to the working environment. The importance and value of this was never so critical, as staff responded and brought in new ways of working during 2020. A Virtual Recognition Event for the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards was held to formally recognise and showcase the initiatives developed in response to the pandemic. In our adoption of the Declaration on Public Service Innovation, we continued to promote a culture of innovation in our organisation. We also contributed to the national Decade of Centenaries commemorations, by organising ‘The 23 Kildare Street Talks - The Countess, Casualties and The Civil Service’, a series of short lectures on the revolutionary period between 1919 to 1923.

During this past year, where we have had little face-to-face contact with our colleagues, we have tackled and delivered on many new and unexpected challenges, which is a testimony to the dedication and public service values of our Department. I am enormously proud of the

team and I would like to thank each and every one for their ongoing commitment. I would also like to thank and acknowledge my colleagues on the Management Board and the senior leaders in our Offices and Agencies for their leadership and support. Finally, I must acknowledge and thank the many stakeholders who have engaged with us so positively during the year, which is greatly valued. I look forward to working with them on our many shared agendas as we emerge from the crisis in the year ahead.