Results 821-840 of 12,682 for speaker:Louise O'Reilly
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: The Minister regrets the premise of my question-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: -----which is related to the importance of the connectivity not just for business-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: -----and for workers but also because of the potential reputational damage. I asked the Minister if he had a plan B. He said that he did not. That is fine.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I have questions to ask the Minister-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: -----that relate to the substance of his submission.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I prefaced everything I said by being crystal clear with the Minister. I share his hopes that the talks will be fruitful, but in the event that they are not, people watching this meeting want to know if there is a plan B and there is not.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I asked the Minister if he had a plan B.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: His answer was "No".
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: There is nothing dangerous about a fall-back plan.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: We heard it on the radio this morning.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: The Minister will intervene where he feels there is an issue.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: If he does not think it is appropriate now, that is fine.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I want to ask the Minister about the substance of the discussion because I am conscious of the time. I want to talk to him about businesses that export. He will be aware, as I am, that they generally perform better across the KPIs, including employment and productivity. It is a bit of a no-brainer that expanding exporting will improve our broad economic performance. In recent years the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I was specifically referring to SMEs. Could the Minister decouple those figures? The figure I have in front of me, of 3.2%, potentially dropping to 2.8%, refers specifically to SMEs. To be fair, it is an area where there is great potential.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: It is just a case of harnessing that potential. Sometimes those figures can become somewhat distorted when we bring the larger players into it. What are the specific figures for SMEs?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: There is scope to increase that, specifically for SMEs. I assume it is the Minister's intention to increase that figure from the current low base that I already put on the record. Is it his intention to set a target or will he wait and see what happens? When we decouple the SMEs from the larger figures, it highlights the scope that exists for growth. Is there a plan to set targets or what...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I thank the Minister very much. I want to talk about SME productivity and growth for a moment. That is at the heart of the potential to increase wages and profitability. We are successful in Ireland at generating and attracting high-growth firms, in particular multinationals but domestic SMEs sometimes lag in terms of productivity. That issue is not related to the workers not working...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: The point about making the administrative capacity a bit leaner is very interesting, in addition to the potential for AI. That is something we have discussed here at the committee at length. It is a subject in which we have taken a particular interest. We recognise, as does the Minister, the potential that exists, which is important, but we also recognise – I am sure he does also...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Would the Minister have a concern that there might be difficulty accessing and engaging with the tertiary education sector, particularly for the smaller SMEs that are set up around the table? It might be a little bit daunting for people almost going back to college for the first time but specifically in relation to their business. Does he see that there is an issue there? I hope those...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: I have a point to make that is not directly related to what has been said, but I just want to mention it because it relates to news breaking in my constituency on the Wavin factory. The factory is moving quite a substantial amount of its production to England, which will come as a huge blow. I intend to correspond with the Minister on this matter. Balbriggan is one of the biggest towns in...