Results 46,761-46,780 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Written Answers — Job Creation: Job Creation (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The establishment of the thirty-five County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) pre-dated the development of the National Spatial Strategy. The CEBs were set up in 1993 to provide support for micro-enterprises in the start-up and expansion phases, to promote and develop indigenous micro-enterprise potential and to stimulate economic activity and entrepreneurship at locallevel. As the...

Written Answers — Job Creation: Job Creation (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The establishment of the thirty-five County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) pre-dated the development of the National Spatial Strategy. The CEBs were set up in 1993 to provide support for micro-enterprises in the start-up and expansion phases, to promote and develop indigenous micro-enterprise potential and to stimulate economic activity and entrepreneurship at local level. As the...

Written Answers — Departmental Publications: Departmental Publications (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: My Department published our Annual Report for 2006 in April this year. The Report is available on my Department's website at www.entemp.ie.

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 337 and 339 together. The opening hours of my Department are 9.15 am to 5.30 pm on Mondays to Thursdays inclusive and 9.15 am to 5.15 pm on Fridays. The phone lines of my Department are open during the same periods and remain open for a further 15 minutes each evening. The phone lines and the Department do not close for lunch. Within the Department itself...

Written Answers — Departmental Correspondence: Departmental Correspondence (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The following is the information requested by the Deputy: Name of Form Can form be downloaded? Can form be completed on-line? Complaint Form under our Quality Customer Service Charter Yes Yes The Freedom of Information Request Form Yes Yes The National Employment Rights Authority of my Department (NERA) has only one form on which clients can set out matters that they want investigated....

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The issue of the opening hours for the public offices and telephone lines of the Agencies and Bodies is a day to day administration matter for the Agencies and Bodies concerned and is an area in which I have no function.

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: Community Employment (CE) is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a fixed term basis. CE helps unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to a work routine and to...

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 343 and 344 together. Under the Industrial Development Acts, IDA Ireland was established as an autonomous agency with responsibility for the attraction and development of foreign direct investment in this country. In exercising its statutory functions there are many day-to-day operational matters undertaken by the Agency in which the Minister of the day has...

Written Answers — Economic Competitiveness: Economic Competitiveness (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: We are price takers when it comes to buying energy needed to run our economy. We are subject to the same fossil fuel cost pressures experienced in other economies. The Government is very aware that both energy supply and cost is of strategic, competitive importance. Our approach to tackling the issue of supply and cost is clearly set out in the Government's Energy Policy that was published...

Written Answers — Economic Competitiveness: Economic Competitiveness (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government has overall responsibility for guidelines and schemes in relation to local authority charges. In the first five-year period of operation of the Development Contribution Scheme the amount collected in development contributions increased significantly. This reflected, in part, the increasing demand for infrastructure arising from our...

Written Answers — Departmental Records: Departmental Records (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: My Department uses reputable companies to recycle old PCs and other redundant information technology equipment and to provide a certificate of their destruction. Part of this process involves the physical destruction of hard drives. This process is in line with best practice and gives assurance that disposal of ICT equipment will not pose a security risk to the Department or its clients.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: There is one press officer employed in my Department and there was one in 2002. The employment of press officers in agencies reporting to my Department is a day to day operational matter for those agencies and I have no function in the matter.

Written Answers — Departmental Websites: Departmental Websites (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The 15 websites maintained by my Department and offices of my Department, do not have the facility for podcasts to be available for download by members of the public. The Department is satisfied with its current communications tools but will keep under review the advisability of having podcasts, and other modern technological inventions, available for download by members of the public. The...

Written Answers — Departmental Properties: Departmental Properties (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The buildings occupied by my Department are managed and maintained by the Office of Public Works (OPW) on behalf of the Department. All matters pertaining to the heating and lighting of the Department's buildings are decided upon by the OPW in consultation with the Department. My Department is aware of the need to make the Department's buildings more environmentally friendly and during 2007...

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: Under the Industrial Development Act of 1986, as amended by the Acts of 1993 and 1995, IDA Ireland has the power to acquire, hold and dispose of land and any other property or any interest therein for the purpose of facilitating an industrial undertaking. Accordingly, the management of IDA Ireland's industrial property portfolio is a day-to-day operational matter for the Agency, as part of...

Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "—commends the Government on the successful management of the economy which has placed Ireland in 3rd place globally in terms of job creation for our population size. Ireland is 8th in the world in terms of ease of doing business and is in the top five for the strength of our education and...

Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: During Deputy Phil Hogan's term as spokesman on enterprise, he specialised in graphic descriptions of how the latest announcement of pressures on a company would quickly be followed by dramatic declines in employment throughout the economy. It is already clear that Deputy Varadkar intends following this lead and is working hard to make Deputy Hogan look restrained and constructive in...

Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The Government's position is very clear. We believe that the economy continues to show many signs of strength and all figures show that employment levels are high and rising. However, we have to be extremely vigilant about maintaining our competitiveness. The right policy response does not lend itself to a cheap headline but requires action on a broad range of fronts. These include...

Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: The success of the Irish labour market over the past decade has been unparalleled in the recent history of Europe. At the same time unemployment has more than halved to just over 4% and long-term unemployment has fallen to less than 1.5%. Our employment performance has been particularly impressive since 2003, with labour-intensive sectors to the fore of the economic upturn. The last...

Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (4 Dec 2007)

Micheál Martin: We also predict an increase in employment again next year. This expansion is especially noticeable in high technology sectors, where we are now able to confidently pitch for international investment in advanced research and development. IBM is not the Government. IBM's recent global location trends report, which is not any departmental statistical analysis, ranks us third overall in jobs...