Results 13,561-13,580 of 14,886 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Job Creation: Job Creation (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: The primary objective of my Department is to ensure that we have the right policies in place to support and grow our enterprise base in order to facilitate both job creation and job retention. The policies developed by this Government to accelerate and improve the transition of young people from education into the labour market are based on three main pillars: 1. Expanding provision in the...

Written Answers — Public Sector Pay Agreements: Public Sector Pay Agreements (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: The Croke Park Agreement has committed the Civil and Public Service management to working with their staff to increase efficiency and reduce costs across the public sector. In that regard, my Department and our Agencies submitted Croke Park Implementation Plans last October to the Department of Finance and the Agreement "Implementation Body" for consideration. We submitted updated Plans on...

Written Answers — National Wage Agreements: National Wage Agreements (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 97 together. The National Recovery Plan 2011 – 2014 commits to a range of structural reforms to the labour market aimed at removing barriers to employment creation and disincentives to work; and at re-orientating activation measures. In this context, the Government committed to review the framework of Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) and Registered...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) is one of the front-line services directly affected by the current turbulence in the labour market. The Tribunal hears claims under 18 separate pieces of legislation. Some claims, like Unfair Dismissal cases, are complex and can take up to 4 days. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of claims coming to the Tribunal trebled. While there has been a slight...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 100 together. The Towards 2016 Review and Transitional Agreement 2008 – 2009 (paras 9.1 – 9.3) provides for the establishment of a review process to consider the legal and other steps necessary to enable the employee representation mechanisms that had been established under previous agreements – and in legislation – to operate as they had...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: Ireland's body of employment rights legislation protects all workers employed on an employer-employee basis in Ireland. The Protection of Employee's (Part-Time) Work Act, 2001 provides that all employee protection legislation applies to a person, irrespective of his or her nationality or place of residence, who has entered into a contract of employment that provides for his or her being...

Written Answers — National Minimum Wage: National Minimum Wage (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: In accordance with Section 13 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2010, the Order to give effect to the Government's decision to reduce the national minimum wage to €7.65 was signed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation on 18 January. The reduction will come into effect on 1 February 2011. The adjustment of the national minimum wage to a rate more...

Written Answers — National Minimum Wage: National Minimum Wage (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: Section 41 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 makes provision for an employer to apply to the Labour Court for a once-off time limited exemption from the requirement to pay the minimum rate. The EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland, published on 1 December 2010, includes a commitment to enlarge the scope of the inability pay provision in the National Minimum Wage Act 2000,...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I assume the Deputy's question relates to wage rates provided for in Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) made under the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system. JLCs are statutory bodies established under the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 2004 to provide machinery for the fixing of minimum rates of pay and the regulation of conditions of employment. JLCs are composed of representatives of...

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: Access to bank credit for businesses, particularly SMEs, has been central to many Government initiatives in addressing the crisis in the banking sector. Both the 2009 and 2010 bank recapitalisation arrangements provided specific commitments from the recapitalised banks to assist SMEs. Under the 2010 bank recapitalisation arrangement, AIB and Bank of Ireland have both committed to making...

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: All Members share the Deputy's commitment to viable small businesses and this is the reason the review office is in place. Regardless of party politics, all Members should use it. I have used it and have found it to be helpful to me and to a number of constituents. As for direct interaction with the office, it takes it on and if the businesses are viable and if they have a future, it will...

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I do not have it to hand but will provide it to the Deputy. However, unless Members provide the cases from their daily interactions with businesses, that figure will not improve.

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I have to hand some figures. Since its establishment, the Credit Review Office has had slightly more than 4,000 users of its website, 467 calls from borrowers and a total of approximately 37 cases have been received. The Government is not happy with this and Deputy Morgan probably has hit on a point, in that we must do a lot more. While the Credit Review Office has advertised extensively...

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: While I do not have that information to hand, I will provide it to the Deputy. It certainly is the kind of information this Department has been seeking through this process.

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I accept that and accept Deputy Penrose's concerns in this regard. As for meeting the banks or the bank management, the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has led five different meetings with the banks since his appointment to the Department at the end of March 2010. The last report of the Credit Review Office states: My view is that recapitalisation strategy for the two main banks is now...

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: Some changes such as those suggested by Deputy O'Donnell have been made. The Government has been forcing banks to improve their lending facilities to SMEs and the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, referred to increasing the number of staff. Moreover, the skills base of staff to lend to SMEs was depleted-----

SME Sector (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: -----and they now are engaged in partnership with Enterprise Ireland on this. In addition, the Government has found that the success rate of appeals within the banking system from regional to central level has improved in recent months. Moreover, the Government continues to force the banks to adopt a more vigorous internal appeals procedure, as well as that available through the Credit...

Job Creation (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: The primary objective of my Department is to ensure we have the right policies in place to support and grow our enterprise base to facilitate job creation and job retention. The work of the Department has been proven over the past five days with the announcement of 1,200 new jobs, including a major investment by the Intel corporation which had been sought worldwide. The policies developed by...

Job Creation (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: All of us are very aware of the problem we face. However, it is not just an Irish problem and I remind Deputy Bruton that 1 million people under the age of 25 are unemployed in the UK. We have put in place a direct response, providing for graduate employment and for those without qualifications. Between the skills development and internship programme and the work placement programme, there...

Job Creation (19 Jan 2011)

Dara Calleary: I assure the Deputy that I am not in the business of trotting out statistics. These programmes have been devised specifically as a response to the situation we are in and specifically to give people, including educated people, a chance to gain work experience here and to stay here. None of us likes to see emigration but we have had a consistently high figure of immigration in recent years...