Results 8,981-9,000 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English
- Employment Action Plan. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I thank the Minister for his reply. I accept in principle what he is trying to do. However, with regard to community employment schemes, the Minister said they cannot go on forever. I dispute that. Why can we not have such schemes forever? The work the participants are doing is very valuable. I know we cannot have the actual term "community employment" forever, but people on those...
- Employment Action Plan. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I accept that.
- Planning Issues. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: While I thank the Minister for his answer, the question was meant to elicit a longer response, as it involved more than just the planning process, namely, working with local authorities. Our business sector needs more guidance and advice on how to engage with local authorities and similar standards should apply in the dealings with each authority, which I am sure the Minister would accept....
- Planning Issues. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: And pay big money.
- Planning Issues. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: The Minister is in a better position to get something done about this matter. I hope we can knock heads in this regard and keep pushing it in the coming years. This significant and important issue for rural Ireland in particular and the greater Dublin area must be taken seriously. I accept that the Minister has done work in this area, but the issue must be pushed and certain Ministers...
- Planning Issues. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: It is on our list.
- Groceries Order. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: There are many aspects to this debate. I asked this question because I assumed the Department would be in discussion with the Competition Authority or one of its agents. I understand that the authority is independent. The Minister may quote reports stating that the overall level of alcohol consumption has fallen but this is not the real issue. Certain people are influenced by...
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: The target of 50% has not been reached.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: IDA Ireland has a target to create 50% of all new jobs in the BMW region. This is stated as a policy in everything we read; the Minister answered a question in this regard in recent weeks and gave the percentages. The fact that the Minister is unaware of this target probably answers my question. The target has not been reached in any year of the past seven years; levels of 36%, 41%, 44%...
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: That is only greenfield sites.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: That is fine.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I have it.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I thank the Minister for the correction in regard to the green field jobs and so on. If the Minister looks at the percentages he will see they are falling miserably from 50%.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: There is a big difference between 36% and 50%. The trend is in the wrong direction whether the Minister likes it or not. We will come back to it again.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I will come back to that later.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I agree that the IDA gets good value for money. It came before the joint committee recently and it is clear it is doing a very good job for the money its gets. There is no problem in that area. When one includes the other agencies, Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development, it averages out at approximately 2,500 net jobs per year. We mentioned targets earlier. I appreciate the Minister...
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: I am not disputing that. That is not the issue.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: My main concern is that even in the past ten good years, the gain was not very good. I am concerned that in tougher times the net gain might drop slightly.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: That was not what was said in the 2002 election campaign.
- Job Creation. (28 Feb 2008)
Damien English: We will not talk about last year.