Results 141-160 of 2,815 for speaker:Tony Killeen

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (22 Mar 2005)

Tony Killeen: Traditionally, the upper age limit for eligibility for redundancy payment was the same as the pensionable age within the meaning of the Social Welfare Acts. In 1971 the upper age limit was 70, in line with the then old age pension age of 70. This was revised downwards by the Redundancy Payments Act 1979 to 66 years, which was the new pensionable age set out in the Social Welfare Act. The...

Written Answers — Bullying in the Workplace: Bullying in the Workplace (22 Mar 2005)

Tony Killeen: Violence and abuse in any sector of the economy is a matter for reporting to the Garda for investigation and prosecution where an offence has been committed. Where violence and abuse is identified as a hazard at the workplace, employers are required under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989 to include a provision in their safety statement to deal with the problem.

Written Answers — Departmental Investigations: Departmental Investigations (23 Mar 2005)

Tony Killeen: In response to allegations made by the Deputy in the House the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment immediately directed the labour inspectorate of his Department to carry out an investigation. That investigation commenced the following day. The investigation has necessitated the gathering of information from a variety of sources and the interviewing of many parties. In advance of...

Written Answers — Job Initiative: Job Initiative (12 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: A full-time business development executive has been employed by Kilkenny County Enterprise Board to work with a local employment action group in Castlecomer. Enterprise Ireland is part-funding the cost for a two year period up to June 2005. An inter-agency advisory forum was established to work with the business development executive to progress the employment agenda for the Castlecomer area....

Seanad: Rights of Migrant Workers: Statements. (13 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: I commend the Seanad on having facilitated this very important debate. I strongly support the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, in his undertakings in this regard. I also greatly appreciate the work of the labour inspectorate and departmental officials, particularly over the last few weeks, in which an enormous amount of work was done in a very short time. I thank...

Seanad: Job Losses. (13 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: I thank the Senators for raising this matter on the Adjournment, particularly for the positive and constructive manner in which they presented their case. I was disappointed to hear of the recent decision, announced on 4 April 2005, by Microsemi Corporation to cease production at its Ennis-based manufacturing facility. Microsemi employs 44 permanent and 87 temporary staff in manufacturing in...

Written Answers — School Wardens: School Wardens (19 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: The employee in question is employed as a school warden and, like all other school wardens, is employed by the local authority. School wardens are paid a daily rate and work an average of two hours a day, Monday to Friday, during the school term. They are paid when the school is closed for teacher training, in-service days, holy days and public holidays. They are not paid for the Christmas...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (19 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: The total cost to the social insurance fund of providing for statutory redundancy payments for the first three months of 2005 was €23,568,679.88. Of this, expenditure on employer rebates of 60% where the employers paid eligible employees their correct statutory redundancy lump sum entitlements amounted to €22,079,236.47. Expenditure arising from direct payments by my Department from the...

Written Answers — Industrial Relations: Industrial Relations (19 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: In October 2001, a company complained to the Department that a successful rival from overseas had been granted employment permits to bring overseas workers into the State and that the use of such labour was prompted by lower labour costs. Officials of the Department met the complainant and in the course of a detailed discussion it was alleged that the company in question could not have won a...

Written Answers — Industrial Relations. : Industrial Relations. (19 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: In May 2003, two labour inspectors were transferred temporarily to the Employment Appeals Tribunal to assist in dealing with a backlog caused by an increase in the volume of cases submitted to the tribunal. One of the officers concerned disputed the proposed transfer and the grievance procedure was invoked. The civil service mediator recommended that the transfer proceed and that the officer...

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: Arising from paragraph 12.4 of the mid-term review of Sustaining Progress, and to assist in the preparation of proposals for consideration by Government, the labour inspectorate prepared a discussion document on its mandate and resourcing. This comprehensive document was circulated to the social partners in January of this year so that their views could be obtained. The discussion document...

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: As I said, the labour inspectorate's report was circulated to the social partners in January. As the Deputy will be aware, and as I said previously in response to his questions, up to last year the number of labour inspectors was 17. There were some difficulties last year because some of them were involved in work associated with the European Presidency. The number was increased following the...

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: A number of lessons arise from the points made by Deputy Howlin and indeed adverted to by almost every Member of the House. There is no doubt that there are employers who will exploit their workers but a second and important lesson is that the labour inspectorate eventually catches up with those people——

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: ——and prepares reports which ultimately have to be placed before the courts.

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: The Deputy will acknowledge, as will anybody who is familiar with the law here, that one is required to present evidence in court and produce people who are prepared to give that evidence. That has been a difficulty heretofore but it is one that is gradually, and perhaps too slowly, being addressed. We need to send out a strong message from this House that those employers who continue to...

Labour Inspectorate. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: A doubling of the numbers involved in the labour inspectorate in a very short time is not a bad achievement.

National Workplace Strategy. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: The Taoiseach launched the Report of the Forum on the Workplace of the Future on 9 March 2005. The report contains 42 separate recommendations, which form the basis for a national workplace strategy. The strategy aims to create a climate conducive to supporting change and new forms of work organisation at national and organisational level. A high level group comprising senior representatives...

National Workplace Strategy. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: I acknowledge the considerable work that was done in preparing this report and the fact that it arises from the deliberations of the social partners, among others. We sometimes fail to acknowledge the value of social partnership. I thought the Deputy might say that I was one of the least qualified people to be chairperson of the group in view of the type of unfriendly working hours Members of...

National Workplace Strategy. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: As Deputies will be aware, there have been considerable improvements in legislation in a number of areas in recent years. Deputy Ryan might say that the rate of progress has been much slower than he and others would like.

National Workplace Strategy. (20 Apr 2005)

Tony Killeen: Nevertheless, the group undertook a very difficult job and is to be lauded for having formulated its report and recommendations. A vision was presented of a future workplace which is agile, customer-centred, knowledge intensive, responsive to employee needs, networked, highly productive, involved and participatory, continually learning and proactively diverse. It is the kind of workplace we...