Results 32,981-33,000 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (16 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s Living with COVID-19 Plan recognises the need for an overall incremental approach which take account of the societal and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the varying responses required. The Living with Covid-19 plan sets out how businesses should operate at five different levels. The Country is, at present, at Level 3. Under Level 3 restrictions no...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (16 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My officials and I have been engaging intensively with businesses and with their representative bodies as the COVID-19 restrictions have fluctuated over the year. This includes engagement in fora such as the Retail Consultation Forum led by Minister English, the SME Taskforce, as well as my involvement with the Tourism and Hospitality Forum, led by Minister Martin. Participation in these...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Joint provisional liquidators have been appointed by the High Court to four Irish operating companies that are part of the UK fashion group Arcadia. As the matter is before the courts and not a matter for Government, it is sub judiceand I am limited in what I can say. I extend my sympathies to the workers who are in danger of losing their jobs. I fully appreciate how difficult the situation...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is absolutely right. Many of these workers live in my constituency and have been in contact with me already. There are 500 of them across the country. The first objective will be to save as many jobs as we possibly can save. The second will be to ensure that their rights and entitlements are guaranteed but with support and solidarity must come honesty. That means saying that,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: What the workers will get is what they deserve, which is solidarity, support and total honesty. They may not get that from others. We will do the best we can to secure as many of the 500 jobs as possible and keep as many of the stores open as possible. We will engage with the union and, to the extent that we can, with the liquidator on that. As a Government we will ensure that the legal...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I want to once again express the gratitude of the House to all of the front-line and essential workers who continued to provide services throughout the pandemic. The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 sets out an employee’s entitlement to annual leave and the terms and conditions around the taking of that leave. Under section 20 of the Act, the times at which annual leave is...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We will keep this under review and if we find cases of people who are being refused their annual leave, we will take legislative action if we need to. It is important to say that people can carry over their annual leave for six months into the next year and that we are encouraging people to take their annual leave, because people need a break and to rest. Even if they cannot travel abroad...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is a misrepresentation of what I said. If there are examples of people who cannot take their leave, where they are being refused leave by their employer, whether it is a public service employer or private sector employer, we want to know about it, because an employer in those circumstances is breaking the law. People are entitled to their annual leave and can carry it forward for at...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Covid-19 restrictions support scheme was introduced to provide targeted compensation to those businesses adversely affected by the imposition of public health restrictions. It has advantages over the restart and restart plus grants as the amounts payable under the scheme can be varied depending on the length of time that restrictions are in place. The level of payment also reflects the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to bear in mind that any and all firms can qualify for the employment wage subsidy scheme. That is designed to help with the cost of the payroll and keeping staff on. The CRSS is designed to help with fixed, non-employment-related costs of keeping a company going. Those non-payroll costs tend to relate to the cost of running a premises. I mentioned sectoral schemes for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: A company like that qualifies for the employment wage subsidy scheme and so it would receive money towards its payroll costs. The question in regard to a company like that is what its non-payroll costs are. In other words, what are the fixed costs not related to payroll that it has to cover? That is the kind of issue we are trying to explore at the moment. Without a premises, a business's...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The review of the national development plan is an important opportunity to assess our programme of investment in public infrastructure and ensure we are developing our physical infrastructure, human capital and cultural capital to serve the changing needs of our society and economy. The Government's priority is that we use our capital investment optimally to drive a jobs-led recovery and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The original plan, Project Ireland 2040, and the national development plan which flowed from it stands. There was going to be a review in 2022 and we are bringing forward that review by a year. We should have the revised national development plan by the middle of 2021. There is more money going into capital expenditure than we intended so there will be some scope for new projects and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As part of the budget for 2021, there is an increase in the capital allocation to Irish Water so it will be getting more resources. I am aware that water services are a significant development constraint in many parts of the country. If we look at the list of works that need to be done and the available budget, it does not mean that everything is going to be done next year or the year...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Brexit loan scheme and the future growth loan scheme have very different objectives and were both established prior to the onset of the pandemic. The Brexit loan scheme was launched in 2018 to provide SMEs and companies with fewer than 500 employees with an option to access competitively priced working capital finance to help them to mitigate and react to the impacts of Brexit. It was...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I believe these schemes are targeted. There are many different loan and grant schemes. It may be the case that they are not targeted particularly to the Gaeltacht but they are targeted to small businesses. Microenterprises, which the Deputy mentioned, and enterprises with fewer than ten employees can benefit from the Microfinance Ireland loans, and there has been a very good uptake of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Tá an tacaíocht ar fáil do na daoine agus do na fiontair ar an talamh. I will take a look at that review. I received a brief summary of it but I have not read it from cover to cover and I will do that over the Christmas break. We have a package of grants and loans. There is, of course, more demand for grants than for loans because grants are not repayable and that will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The restart grant and restart grant plus schemes were designed to help small and medium-sized businesses during an exceptionally difficult time. The restart grant scheme was launched on 15 May, with a budget of €250 million. The restart grant plus scheme was launched on 10 August, with an additional budget of €300 million from the Government's July stimulus, as a result of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I join the Deputy in thanking and congratulating the staff in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and county councils throughout the country, for doing such a good job in processing all these applications. It was not a part of their normal work. They were asked to do it and it took a few weeks to get going, but they did it and they did it well. We rightly congratulate and thank...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is a €55 million scheme that will be administered by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. She and I are working closely together on tourism and hospitality issues because there is such an overlap between enterprise, employment, tourism and hospitality. I will certainly bring that matter to her attention but I cannot make a...