Results 39,981-40,000 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Food Industry (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: First, I acknowledge the role of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, in terms of the retail forum. That focus on ensuring that consumers are getting a fair deal from a competitive marketplace in the retail sector continues. There will be another retail forum in early autumn and that conversation will continue. The food industry is an industry that I know reasonably well,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Food Industry (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: What I will commit to is having a conversation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine about what the appropriate direction here is in terms of what we should be doing together as a Government and in the context of the new regulator being set up. It is important to say that we import a lot of food from large food companies like Unilever, Nestlé and lots of others. We are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy. I would like to have more opportunity to discuss this issue if I could. Maybe we can do that in the next few weeks. First, I want to say that I know yesterday was another difficult day for all the staff in Tara Mines and my first concern remains for the impacted staff and their families. This includes the 650 staff employed directly by the company in Navan but also...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: That engagement will continue right the way through this process. Even if it moves into a care and maintenance situation, we want to continue to talk to both the workers' representatives and management to try to make sure that period is as short as possible. It is important to say and put on the record that the management have been really clear with me that they are 100% convinced that this...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: Enterprise Ireland is also engaging with other companies that are subcontracting, for example, into Tara Mines to try to find alternative work for those companies.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: The Chair might give me a slight bit of latitude and I will finish then. On the core question, certainly, I do not believe that the management has rejected the proposals from the union leadership. What they have said to me is it is not enough in terms of cost savings to be able to avoid moving into care and maintenance for now. Of course, we need then to look at what is possible in terms...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I hear what the Deputy is saying. With regard to supports in the labour market, of course, the Government is always open to looking at new and more impactful ways of doing things and looking at international best practice and so on. With regard to Tara Mines, it is important to be upfront about the scale of the financial pressures on the company. The predicted loss for 2023, when the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unfair Dismissals (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for making me feel old this morning.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unfair Dismissals (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: Ireland has a robust suite of employment rights legislation to protect employees. Where employees believe their employment rights have been breached, they have the right to refer complaints to the WRC for an adjudication and possible redress. The Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015 provide that where an employee has been unfairly dismissed, an adjudication officer and, on appeal, the Labour...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unfair Dismissals (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I accept the principle that there has to be a real deterrent to prevent unfair dismissal. That is the point of having industrial relations machinery that deals with that. Nevertheless, we have to try to get the balance right between, on the one hand, protecting workers and making sure there is not unfair dismissal, with an appropriate deterrent in that regard, and also having a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unfair Dismissals (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I do not want to talk about any individual case on the floor of the Dáil but I want to make it very clear that it is unlawful to dismiss a person from his or her job simply because he or she is a member of a trade union. Nobody should lose his or her job because he or she has chosen to join a trade union in Ireland. It is important to say that. I take the Deputy's point in terms of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: The protection of democracy is extremely important. We have seen rogue actors trying to influence elections. There are multiple examples of that across democracies. AI is another more advanced tool for state and non-state actors to try to intervene and affect election results. My understanding is that Art O'Leary, the head of the Electoral Commission, is very engaged with this issue in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic Policy (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for his question. This is a big good news story in Ireland. The Irish economy and the manufacturing and export sectors are stronger than they have ever been. Of course, there will be international disruptions at different times, but the strength and employment, and the tax revenue created by this sector is in a very good place right now. The Irish manufacturing and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic Policy (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: We are constantly talking to multinational companies both at home and abroad. That is why I have been to the US twice this year. We went early in the year to try to get a handle on what is happening in the technology sector globally where we had seen quite a number of large tech-based multinationals in Ireland make decisions globally to reduce headcount and that, of course, has had an...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic Policy (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: It is important that we emphasise the point that the Irish economic growth story is not just based on attracting large multinational companies and helping them to grow global businesses out of Ireland. This is a very important part of the Irish economy but the mainstay of employment in Ireland is Irish SMEs and family companies across the country. We must ensure that we support them and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic Policy (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: That is a fair point.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Work Permits (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, might want to come back on this. A proposal was approved by the Cabinet recently to try to introduce much more flexibility to that process. If someone comes to Ireland on a work permit and then looks to transfer to another company, after a certain period - there are certain thresholds and so on - they should be facilitated to do that in a much more...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Business Supports (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: I am glad I have time to put facts on the record on this issue. It is a good news story. We are moving it forward. The cost of energy is a major factor, as people will be aware, in the operation of most businesses. The impact of the significant price increases experienced by businesses in 2022 and 2023, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was mitigated by the introduction of the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy and I had an opportunity to discuss this earlier. I recognise the constructive role the union leadership has played in what has been a difficult few weeks for people employed at Tara Mines. They made a genuine, pragmatic intervention by proposing cost reductions to try to improve the viability of the plant. I have spoken to the management and to workers' representatives. We...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Jun 2023)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy will be aware, a court-appointed examiner is working through the examinership process at the moment. Workers have rights in that process and we need to ensure they are respected. A complaints procedure under the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, can also be activated. I am limited in what I can say due to the ongoing court process. However, I am obviously concerned about...