Results 3,581-3,600 of 4,720 for speaker:Neale Richmond

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Hospital Services (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I am disappointed that the Senator finds little comfort in this reply because what we have here is a very clear determination from the Department and the hospital group to work to find those new facilities that the Senator rightly says are desperately needed for the people of Kildare and the wider midlands region. I disagree. Fundamentally, the clinic is staffed by brilliant people in...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: National Monuments (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I am grateful to the Senator for raising this issue and for putting up with me responding to it. I do so enthusiastically, not just on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, but as someone who, like the Senator, is a true-blue Dub and is proud of our nation's history and who, like the Acting Chairman, is an historian by background and has spoken on this matter as a...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: National Monuments (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I assure the Senator that what I have laid out is a detailed process that has to be and will be followed by the Government and all the various stakeholders to realise this crucial project. While it does not include specific dates, it includes clear objectives that need to be met. If we were dealing with an ordinary construction project or restoration, we would have a clear timeline, but we...

Re-introduction of Mortgage Interest Relief: Motion [Private Members] (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I appreciate the opportunity to speak in this lengthy, wide-ranging debate, which has covered a topic that has been a subject of previous Private Members' business. It was a familiar topic to me and Deputy Durkan at meetings of the finance committee over recent years. Unfortunately, Deputy Conway-Walsh and I were not members of the committee at the same time but I appreciate that the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I apologise to the Chair and, more important, Deputy Cowen for the logistical mess-up at the start. I was moving over from dealing with oral parliamentary questions. To provide context to my reply, the Department has not received a formal redundancy notification in regard to the company just yet. That covers an awful lot of what the response can be at this stage, but I will try as best...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I am extremely aware of the importance of this industry to a county the Deputy and his family have represented with such distinction for decades. The suggestions he made are commonsensical and worthwhile. It behoves me to have great responsibility not just to bring them back to ministerial colleagues in Government, which I undertake to do, but take it further and engage on my behalf and on...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Road Projects (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I greatly appreciate Deputy Stanton’s indulgence that I am giving the reply. I will give the best response I can. From the outset, I want to underline that I completely acknowledge his commitment to the project and his advocacy that has been ongoing for it, as well as acknowledging that of the Acting Chair. His passion for it will be familiar to many of us here. I agree that Mallow...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Road Projects (25 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I empathise completely with the Deputy’s frustration. I will take this back to the Minister first thing tomorrow morning. He is right that it is not acceptable that budgetary constraints have been cited for 2023. Two Deputies for Cork East are in the Chamber. It is my job as the Minister of State who is taking this question to go back and look at the funding envelope or whatever...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Ireland operates a managed employment permits system maximising the benefits of economic migration and minimising the risk of disrupting Ireland’s labour market. The system is vacancy led and managed through the operation of the Critical Skills Occupations List (CSOL) and the Ineligible Occupations List (IOL). The Lists undergo periodic evidence-based review involving a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Job Losses (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: As the company concerned is a client of Enterprise Ireland, my Department has received an early warning report from Enterprise Ireland concerning the planned redundancies in this company. My Department also received a collective redundancy notification in relation to potential redundancies at the company in question on 24 March 2023 and I understand that the employer has commenced the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: The table below shows the number of Critical Skills Employment Permits that were granted by my Department under the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 2211 in the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and to-date in 2023. These figures include the number of Critical Skills Employment Permits that were granted in respect of General Practitioners during the same period. All doctor...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: The current Sectoral Employment Order (SEO) for the Construction Sector came into effect on 1 February 2022. The Order fixes the statutory minimum rates of pay and other conditions for example, sick pay and pension entitlements for craftspeople, construction operatives and apprentices employed in the construction sector. Any employer in that sector has a legal duty to comply, at minimum,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Industrial Relations (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Since the enactment of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015, 11 applications were made to the Labour Court under Section 2(1) of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001 as amended. A recommendation issued in respect of 7 of these applications and 4 were withdrawn by the requesting party. The details of the recommendations which issued are provided below and the decisions are...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (26 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: The Local Enterprise Offices are a ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports to those wishing to start or grow their own business and act as a ‘signposting’ service for all government supports available to the SME sector and can provide information/referrals to other relevant bodies under agreed protocols e.g....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Support Services (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Go raibh maith agat an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach agus Seanadóir McGreehan. I appreciate her kind words and it is lovely to know that I am still considered new.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Support Services (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Yes, Senator, and in more than ways than one. I thank Senator McGreehan for tabling a Commencement matter on this important issue. I hope that it is an issue I will be able to convey to my colleagues, so my Minister and three Ministers of State, how passionate I am about this issue not just, like the Senator, from the whole idea of equality and inclusion but also as a person who loves...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Support Services (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: We absolutely are engaging with disability organisations. I was very grateful to Senator Conway for arranging a meeting with a deputation from the National Council for the Blind in Ireland. One of the key things that the NCBI is doing is a new retail apprenticeship scheme.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Support Services (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Yes, the Senator tabled a Commencement matter on the issue so I do not need to tell her about it. I really appreciate her advocacy across this area but particularly in that regard and this one. She hit the nail on the head when she mentioned the difference between equality and equity. Of course, there is absolute equality to access in terms of the grants available but it requires a level...

Seanad: Sectoral Employment Order (Construction Sector) 2023: Motion (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: Cuirim fáilte roimh Chathaoirleach Maher agus na daoine as Meiriceá. I am delighted to welcome my old friend Moegie and his guests from the US to the Gallery. There is much to be discussed about Irish-US relations. I am pleased to present to the Seanad a draft sectoral employment order, SEO, for the construction sector. The draft order that was before the Joint Committee on...

Seanad: Sectoral Employment Order (Construction Sector) 2023: Motion (27 Apr 2023)

Neale Richmond: I very much appreciate Senator McDowell giving me this opportunity to address some of the points he has raised in a wider sense but more particularly in respect of this SEO which is a fundamentally good thing. It should be remembered that these are minimum rates but perhaps not for today but for when we have the economic situation we might perhaps have in the future, given the comments from...