Results 1-20 of 2,051 for speaker:Matt Shanahan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I thank all the guests for coming in this morning. It is great to be having these conversations. I say a special thanks to the lads from Amazon who brought some committee members out to see a factory. That was a real eye opener. Maybe committee members could get an invitation from Google and Microsoft to go out and meet those guys as well. As speakers already highlighted, there is so...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Private business is good at looking at opportunities, so that is less of a worry. The worry is how the State will continue to be able to support this space. If a forklift driver in their 50s is told, "We need you to reskill because we are going to put in robots here to deal with logistics and plant", what reskilling will such people do that will potentially keep them in a job? The issue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I have a note here that the new global arms race appears to involve generative AI. The witnesses already highlighted some of the concerns. We have infrastructural concerns in Ireland, particularly given that we are exposed with transatlantic cables and so on. Will AI prevent hacking in the future or will it ensure it happens far more frequently? There is the issue of how AI might be used...

Ireland's Recognition of the State of Palestine: Statements (28 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Ireland has a deeply felt understanding of the desire of people for the recognition of their own place, culture and existence. Eight hundred years of occupation and a great deal of repression did nothing to quell the Irish desire for freedom, self-determination, self-rule and the international recognition of our civil rights. The Irish State as it is today is often used as an international...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I welcome the extension of the increased cost of business, ICOB, scheme and the changes to the PRSI and VAT thresholds, which is something I and my colleagues in the Regional Group brought to Government some weeks back in a Private Member's motion. I wish to ask about the participation rate. How many businesses are accessing ICOB? What consideration has been given to those businesses that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: As the Minister knows, some of the burden in costs is due to the environment of increased costs inflation, but a large part has been brought about by the progressive costs introduced by the Government. I have advocated for quite some time to Deputy Varadkar, when he was Taoiseach, and to Deputy Coveney, when he was Minister, and now I am saying it to Deputy Burke as Minister, as I have said...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 50. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the main supports to the SME sector his Department is proposing, including additions to the increased cost of business scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23223/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: It is refreshing to see three Ministers from the Department taking questions. It shows the importance of the Department. My question relates to the main supports for the SME sector the Department is proposing, including additions to the increased cost of business scheme.

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 69. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will acknowledge the continuing momentum around artificial intelligence generation has the potential to create seismic challenges for both the public and private business sectors; if he is considering any developments around specific agency development to support public and private sector navigation of these challenges; and if...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Functions (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 94. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views regarding his Department's activity with respect to the national training fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23237/24]

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 97. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the details of the application rates his Department has seen in relation to the ICOB scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23234/24]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Data (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 152. To ask the Minister for Finance the details of the latest understandings regarding the number of businesses and the outstanding debt that remains within the debt warehousing scheme that relate to businesses that have still not engaged with revenue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23235/24]

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 167. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he would acknowledge that a large number of SMEs in Ireland are struggling to meet demand because they cannot recruit or retain employees with the necessary skillsets within Ireland; to confirm the number of overseas employees over the past five years who have been recruited in managerial and customer facing rolls, in tabular...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 168. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has any concerns regarding the costs trajectory on business as a result of the proposed roadmap for increasing minimum annual remuneration thresholds for employment permits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23261/24]

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: We just spoke about how the health recruitment freeze is affecting the seven-day cardiac service, but it is also stopping other initiatives in the national hospital space. A large hospital in the country was able to transfer 220 patients who receive bimonthly infusion therapy into a community primary care setting because it had specialist nurses to help it do that. The patients remain under...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: We held a remembrance event in Waterford on Saturday to mark the recent passing of Brendan Cummins, someone who I recommended to the Taoiseach to the board of SETU. Brendan was a global CEO of Ciba-Geigy for many years and a board member of two companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but it was his civic work in Waterford he will be most remembered for, especially his outstanding...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I sometimes get bemused when I am making these statements because I wonder do I see different evidence from what the Taoiseach does when he responds to me. I would make the point here that the Taoiseach has raised the issues of SETU and what is happening. I point out to the Taoiseach that there has been no delivery on the promises that were given there, be it the courses, the teaching...

Dentistry Services: Motion (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I welcome the motion, which is constructive and timely considering the present challenging trajectory of dental service provision in Ireland. Dental services are a subject that comes up repeatedly in constituency offices around the country. That is no surprise, given our increasing population and the declining investment in State-supported expenditure to dental schemes and care. The...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (22 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Does the Minister of State have an opinion on the ability of businesses, particularly more established ones, to work with the local enterprise offices, LEOs? It is quite normal, as he well knows, for people in the start-up space to deal with the LEOs, but is not something a lot of businesses in the SME space consider once they have been up and running a number of years because they feel they...