Results 33,101-33,120 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The pandemic has caused untold damage to people's lives and livelihoods. I know that many SMEs have been severely impacted by the restrictions needed to ensure public health safety during the pandemic. The Government has provided a comprehensive range of enterprise measures to support businesses at this difficult time. These include the wage subsidy scheme, grants, low-cost loans,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 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 and within Level 3 people should...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As part of the Government’s €5 billion July Stimulus, I announced a new €20 million Ready for Customs support scheme. Enterprise Ireland is rolling out the scheme to help businesses prepare for the new challenges of trading with and through the UK. This scheme provides grants of up to €9,000 to help businesses as they recruit and build staff expertise in customs...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Aviation Industry (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I understand how difficult it must be for Aer Lingus employees facing renegotiations, restructuring and possibly lay-offs. The aviation industry has been devastated by the pandemic and consequently workers in the industry have been severely affected and are facing great uncertainty. In November, the Government agreed a revised €80 million funding package for Irish aviation. In...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am keenly aware that publicans are making a massive sacrifice to protect their communities. I am committed to ensuring that the Government offers as much assistance as possible. A comprehensive range of measures is in place for firms of all sizes, including the wage subsidy scheme, grants, low-cost loans, waivers of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities and details are available on...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Local Enterprise Offices (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Under the Government's Climate Action Plan and in preparation for developing a new strategy, Enterprise Ireland is assessing further the scope and scale of supports and programmes offered to client companies in the area of sustainability and resilience in a low carbon economy. This will include an assessment of Local Enterprise Office supports. The Local Enterprise Offices established...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Workplace Relations Commission (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Work programme for 2021 was approved by the Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail on 3 December 2020. During 2021, the WRC will continue to improve remote services being provided and will also further develop the technological platforms and broader administrative and physical infrastructure within WRC offices to facilitate this....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Brexit Preparations (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 185 and 235 together. Brexit, in whatever shape it finally takes, will have a significant impact on the Irish economy, fundamentally changing the trading environment for businesses trading with the UK, excluding Northern Ireland. With just two weeks until the UK leaves the Single Market and the Customs Union, work to ensure Government, business and...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Trade Agreements (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The information requested by the Deputy is set out in tabular format as follows: In addition to the above the since the beginning of 2019 EU Trade Agreements have entered into force with Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement has been provisionally applied since September 2017 allowing Irish companies take advantage of the all-important...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Farm Safety (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Health and Safety Authority (HSA), an agency under the auspices of my Department, has consistently prioritised the farming sector in their annual programme of work. In addition to targeted inspection campaigns the HSA has also, in recent years, through high-profile media and information campaigns, and collaborative efforts with stakeholders, sought to embed a crucial mindset change in the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: EU Issues (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: EU Trade Policy comes under the EU's Common Commercial Policy and is an EU competence under the Treaties. In that regard, on 16 June 2020 the European Commission launched a major review of the Union's trade policy, including a public consultation seeking input from the European Parliament, Member States, stakeholders and civil society. The Commission's aim is to build a consensus around a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Personal Injuries Assessment Board (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the 8th December 2020, I launched the Government’s first Action Plan for Insurance Reform. The Plan sets out 66 actions to bring down costs for consumers and business; introduce more competition into the market; prevent fraud and reduce the burden on business, community and voluntary organisations. Four actions in the Plan relate to enhancing and reforming the role of the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Company Law (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Ministers of State Robert Troy and Damien English jointly met with employer and union representative bodies on the 4th of November to begin a discussion on the legislative provisions that deal with redundancy and insolvency from both a company law and employment law perspective. I understand that it was a positive and constructive meeting with stakeholders with a view to identifying...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: National Minimum Wage (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government accepted the recommendation of the Low Pay Commission to increase the national minimum wage to €10.20 per hour from 1 January 2021. The Programme for Government includes a commitment to progress to a living wage over the lifetime of the Government. Consideration is now being given to how best to take forward this initiative and I recently met with the Low Pay Commission...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Company Law (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Responsibility for employment rights, redundancy and insolvency recently transferred to my Department from the Department of Social Protection, and the recommendations made in the Duffy-Cahill report, the Terms of Reference of which were quite narrow and specific, are currently being revisited. I have also asked the Company Law Review Group, as per the Programme for Government, to look...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Aviation Industry (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I understand how difficult it must be for Aer Lingus employees facing renegotiations, restructuring and possibly lay-offs. The aviation industry has been devastated by the pandemic and consequently workers in the industry have been severely affected and are facing great uncertainty. In November, the Government agreed a revised €80 million funding package for Irish aviation. In...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My Department and its agencies have put a wide range of enterprise measures in place to assist businesses in identifying key risk areas and practical preparatory actions to be taken with regard to Brexit. The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) in County Galway offer grants to businesses responding to Brexit challenges including the Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters grant. 5 applications...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: IDA Ireland (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Galway forms part of the IDA’s West region along with Mayo and Roscommon. The County continues to perform strongly and is a location of choice for investors. There are now over 21,000 people employed across 88 IDA client companies in Galway City and County. The Deputy will appreciate that the introduction of international travel restrictions related to Covid-19 has, amongst other...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My department, through its agencies and implementation partners, has provided more than €56 million to date to assist businesses in County Galway in offsetting the negative impacts of COVID-19. I enclose the exact amount under the various schemes for the information of the Deputy in the table below. Note that this does not reflect the breadth of supports available across Government...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Small and Medium Enterprises (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future identifies a number of groups which will be led by Government in shaping the engagement of enterprise and SMEs in the formulation of the policy responses at the different stages of the recovery. The groups envisaged by the Programme for Government included an SME Taskforce, to design a National SME Growth Plan that will map out an...