Results 30,701-30,720 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Would it be possible to survey the members of our guests' organisations to get an idea of the energy profile of fishmongers, for example? I presume electricity must account for north of 10% of their costs, whereas in clothing outlets, energy consumption is mostly accounted for by lighting and heating. Can we get a handle on that? If there is to be a response to this, it will be much more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: The point I am making is that I would rather see the Government move towards 80% support of retrofitting than 80% support of electricity bills, which will be burnt up every year. It can be a win-win. If something could be designed to particularly focus on the businesses that are exposed, that is the territory in which we could make progress. The figures released yesterday in respect of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: We are doing that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Does Ms Buckley believe that will solve the issue of employers' liability-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Am I wrong? The data from the Central Bank showed that there is no profit being made by the insurers on employer's liability insurance and public liability insurance. The profit is being made in motor insurance. The insurers are not passing that on to motorists. The argument is that they are cross-subsidising employer's liability insurance and public liability insurance. There is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Current Issues Affecting Trade in Ireland: Enterprise Ireland (9 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentation. It is worth recalling the role that Irish enterprise winning new markets played in our recovery from the last crash and indeed the role that start-ups played. Start-ups in Ireland created 100,000 jobs in that very difficult period, without which we would have had a much deeper crash. The work that Enterprise Ireland does is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Current Issues Affecting Trade in Ireland: Enterprise Ireland (9 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Going back to the issue of sustainability, despite what Deputy Paul Murphy says, data centres have enabled the digital transformation. They have allowed us to have remote delivery and remote working, they facilitate enterprise operating in a less energy-intensive way where they are properly used and they are excluded from Ireland's obligations under the EU because they are in the emissions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Current Issues Affecting Trade in Ireland: Enterprise Ireland (9 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: My concern is that, at this time of focus on costs, sustainability will be regarded as an extra. In my view, sustainability is the enterprise strategy. If we do not put sustainability first, we are on a round track. It is great to have sustainability at the research level and to begin to start the conversation but there is a sense of urgency implying we need to put it front and centre in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: It is important that Ms Buckley give us information on the different sectoral profiles. That will be the key to identifying further measures. Mr. McGrane raised a valid point about taking a longer term view of business development. I am among the optimists about rural Ireland. It can build on the infrastructure and practices of the future much more effectively than it can on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Compostable cups do not end up in a compost heap. They end up, typically, in the black-bin stream and they go to landfill. They are not an alternative and they are not reducing materials. Industrial-style composting is needed to break them down. I know the point Ms Buckley is making-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Yes, but in the long term it does not hold water to try to distinguish between compostable and non-compostable. We just have to discarding material willy-nilly after one use.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: The levy will fall on the user. It is much like the plastic bag levy. The intention is that it will stop the practice, but the intention is also that it will fall on the user, not the retailer. To defend a compostable cup, one first has to collect every compostable cup one gives out in order to be robust. It is not practical for businesses to do that. My point was more a response to Mr....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: Some of the options are not ones that every business supports such as the right to work for remote working, a commitment to a circular economy and the types of measures that involves. There will be friction in many ways in designing that future. This is not all motherhood and apple pie. There is a hard edge to the change that is coming at us at a rate of knots.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: I agree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Issues Facing Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: In my constituency, a company called Vytal has just set up operations. It operates on the basis of a German model. It uses all reusable products for all takeaway foods. The products are reusable, so people go back to the takeaway with their containers. It is a take-back scheme. Once you get the whole community using these vessels, then you will eliminate single-use items. That is just...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (17 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: 87. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on his Department's plans for an agency which will drive forward the development of the childcare sector. [56603/22]

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (17 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: 118. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the latest level of take-up of the core funding model for childcare for providers; if any need to adapt the existing suite of supports has been identified for providers who have sought additional transitional support and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56604/22]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Question Heading for question(s) 136 (17 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: 136. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the progress that has been made in setting up structures for a deposit return scheme; when is it expected to commence; and the value of the deposit expected of consumers. [57179/22]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (17 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: 137. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of applications that have been received to date for grants to install EV chargers in the car parks of multi-unit residential developments; and if he plans initiatives to accelerate their take-up. [57180/22]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (17 Nov 2022)

Richard Bruton: 145. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way that it is intended to classify electric scooters in the context of use of cycle lanes, speed restrictions and obligations to get insurance; and his views on the separations between the traditional divide between mechanically-propelled and those propelled by personal power. [57181/22]