Results 36,781-36,800 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Okay. The commitment I have given is to have the revised legislation published before Christmas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I have an open mind on them being legislated for together. We did consider dealing with the issue of remote working as an amendment to the legislation that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is bringing through now. What the Minister is bringing through derives from a European directive on flexible working. It is for parents and carers, whereas remote...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: What I referred to in relation to the south east was for last year. Last year the south east was either the best or the second best performing region in terms of jobs growth. That is from Central Statistics Office, CSO, data. It is a region that is catching up, and a region that is in the catch-up phase. I believe that the Government's investment in infrastructure, in roads, in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It does not sound like it. The Deputy should not be talking down his own town.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: This has been delegated to the Minister of State, Deputy English, so I might not be fully up to date on it. I may have to revert to the Senator in writing. In the meantime, I shall ask Ms Coogan to comment on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I have no doubt that there is very serious exploitation in the fishing industry. It is mainly non-citizens who are being mistreated in the way described. It needs to be stamped out. Since it involves an area not directly under my remit, I would like to confer with the Minister of State, Deputy English, and the section and maybe revert to the Senator in writing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It was a commitment made by the Minister of State, Deputy English, who is not here. I do not want to respond on his behalf but I will confer with him and the section, and we will respond in writing-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for mentioning the regional enterprise plans, which I neglected to mention in response to Deputy Shanahan. The south-east local authorities, in particular, really embraced the most recent regional enterprise plan. They appointed a programme manager and helped to make it happen. A new plan has been agreed and they are going to be funded. We have €180 million in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The tips law will take effect on 1 December, while the sick pay scheme will begin on 1 January. We hope to have all the regulations signed off within the coming weeks but we have to give a notice period. It is not good practice to sign the regulations and apply them the next day. That is the plan at the moment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The timeline will be determined by the EU directive on minimum wages and collective bargaining. I think it is two years we are being given, so we have two years to transpose the directive. We will set the internal Department target to have it completed by the end of next year-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: -----but that still leaves us some space.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy and I agree that people can be forced to meet but not to engage in good faith or to agree, and I do not think they should be forced to do that in a democracy. Incentives and disincentives can be created, however, and I think that is what the report suggests, whereby the environment would incentivise people to engage in good faith, with disincentives where they do not. As the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We support it. We are the lead Department on following the file through the European process. It is done through the European Competitiveness Council, COMPET, so the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, attends that rather than I. We do want to get it right. Companies that use child labour or destroy the environment need to be called out for doing so, and consumers have a right to know...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It will apply to any business that had an electricity or gas bill last year and can show that the unit cost us gone up by 50% or more. We are looking at the issue of businesses that use oil rather than gas or electricity, and that is particularly the case in businesses in some parts of rural Ireland. Oil has not gone up by as much but it has gone up, so we may need to do something in that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That is the Limerick to Waterford road.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It is on the national development plan and we are trying to secure funding on an annual basis to make sure it continues to get through planning. It is a longer term project, to be frank.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We have gone from at one point a 19-week turnaround time to somewhere between two and four weeks, which is where we plan to maintain it. We have gone from a backlog of 10,000 files to about 2,000 files on file, so it is not really a backlog and we are getting through it in two to four weeks. I offer my particular thanks to all of the staff in the section. We had to increase the staffing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thought the Deputy would bring that up. That is in Carrigtwohill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I know from my trips to Midleton that the former Amgen site is a great site, and I am sure we will get an investor into it at some point in the not-too-distant future. I agree with the Deputy on the road issue, which we are working on. My Department and IDA Ireland are engaging with the Department of Transport and I hope funding will be available in 2023 to bring it to the next stage. I...