Results 32,701-32,720 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think we can do that. We can do it to an extent but there are issues of privacy and data protection. It is public money and there is a difference between grants and loans but I am not sure it is as straightforward as us just being able to publish the details of every company and how much they got. It is much more straightforward if it is a grant-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Enterprise Ireland publishes a list of the grants. When it comes to loans it is different. They are done through banks and they are commercial arrangements rather than taxpayers' money being given to a business. People have a right to know how that is spent.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Not at the moment. There has been great uptake on that. There has not been a huge uptake on all of the loan schemes but that has been one of the better ones.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: More funds will be made available but I do not know to which bank. I am not sure I am at liberty to say either but it is a good scheme. It is one of the schemes that has had the best uptake and we are keen to continue it.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: There are definitely more people going to work now than in the original lockdown of March and April but there are many different reasons for that. First, there is a wider definition of "essential work" and we now include construction, manufacturing, international trade and services and supply chains. Hundreds of thousands more people are deemed essential, including those in childcare and...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think we have a specific budget for it but, as the Deputy will be aware, businesses, through the EWSS, TWSS and other grants, have received €5 billion or €6 billion worth of taxpayers' money and we have terms and conditions around that. One relates to tax compliance, whereby we are not going to give large amounts of public money to companies that have not paid or do...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to double-check that. Those schemes, as the Deputy will be aware, are run by Revenue and they are Department of Finance schemes rather than ones under my remit. I am across them, however, and certainly in terms of what I think would be right and just, we should not give taxpayers' money to companies that do not pay their taxes or that breach employment law. Why would we reward...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: -----does not pay taxes or obey our laws? I do not think that in a just society based on the rule of law, an allegation - I do not think the Deputy is saying this-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: -----is enough. There would have to be a finding. I need to check, and will do so, whether we have a legal mechanism to recover the money in the event of a finding.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the Balance for Better Business initiative, I launched that when I was Taoiseach. At the time, I think it was a creature of the then Department of Justice and Equality but I took a personal interest in it and responsibility for it is to be transferred from that Department to my Department. I will continue to take a personal interest in the initiative. It is all about increasing the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is referring to elections, which are a slightly different matter. It still seems to be the case that economic committees and boards tend to me more male. I am not sure why that is - actually I know why that is, but it is not right. I got the first report a couple of weeks ago. It shows progress and that the percentage of women serving on company boards has increased in those...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is what I said, but I am not sure it is quite what I meant. What I meant to say is that for quite a while now, the majority of clusters have been in private homes and that is where most people have been getting Covid, rather than in schools and workplaces. That is not to say one is more statistically like to get it in a school or workplace. I stand corrected.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It does not just arise in the home either; it has to come from somewhere. We could all stay in one place. If we all stayed in one bubble, we would either not infect each other or we would all infect each other and it would peter out. If we all just stayed in the one place, for example, if we all just stayed at work for X number of weeks, it would have the same effect as us all staying at...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a virus, so it spreads anywhere that people interact and that could be a home, workplace or school. However, what we know is that there are differences. The numbers from schools are very encouraging and there is not a lot of transmission, particularly from children to adults and vice versa. We also know that when it comes to homes and social gatherings, where there is a lot of...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Yes.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Outdoors is better than indoors and good ventilation is better than poor ventilation. To the extent that we have research now, and we are still learning a lot about the virus, it shows that the issue in the meat plants was much less about living conditions and transport and much more about the meat plants themselves and the way they organise their airflow. I think it is linked to the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is much higher in meat plants than in factories or offices of similar size with similar numbers of people.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We are working with the Office of Government Procurement to improve the preparation of business plans. Some supports are available from Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and the local enterprise offices to help vendors prepare tenders. A financial planning grant of up to €5,000 is available for businesses to get an accountant or consultant to help develop a recovery and...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I think you are right, Chairman. I see this across the board and across schemes. I do not blame businesses. They are struggling with Covid, a serious recession, and the fact that we had so many periods where people were marched to the top of the hill or brought to the edge of the cliff and Brexit did not happen. I am a little worried that some businesses may think that we will agree a...