Results 541-560 of 1,132 for speaker:Garret Ahearn

Seanad: Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Now.

Seanad: Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Now.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the recent announcement by the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications and Enterprise, Trade and Employment of extra financial support for businesses to install solar PV panels. It is hugely welcome. The Government has done an awful lot for homeowners in the form of SEAI grants to support them to install solar panels but we probably had not done enough for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome all the witnesses. I congratulate Mr. Hughes and wish him well in his new role. I did this when all the Ministers came into this room. Sometimes we can focus on the challenges quite a lot and that is really important but we need to take a step back sometimes and see what is being achieved. In the last 12 years, the role the Department has played in creating employment in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: With regard to supports for businesses, we gave huge supports during Covid and most businesses were really appreciative of that at the time. There is certainly a feeling when I talk to businesses that the supports given to businesses in the UK are much more supportive of business and enterprise than those given in Ireland. Do the witnesses find that is the case? There are probably budget...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I would not say we are ahead on the solar PV panels scheme. Seeing as Mr. Hughes brought it up, the scheme was introduced last week by the Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Eamon Ryan. It was welcome. They spoke about it at a committee meeting a few months ago. The funding for it is through the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. Mr. Hughes will be aware that many businesses...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: At the start of the meeting, Deputy O'Reilly raised the level of employment for people with disabilities, which is lower than we want it to be. It is approximately 32% or 33% nationally. The EU average is roughly 55%. A strategy plan is in place. My question relates to reserved contracts for companies more than 30% of whose staff are people with disabilities. It is done quite a bit in...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by An Taoiseach (28 Sep 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Judging by all the contributions, the Taoiseach has an awful lot of problems to solve and money to give out after today, and I am going to add one more that has not yet been spoken about, although I have spoken about it many times previously. It relates to speeding up investment for infrastructure in Irish Water. Clonmel has been decimated with outages and disruptions all year to the point...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber again and thank him for the work he and his officials have done on this Bill and in general throughout the year in the Department. As Senator Crowe said, this is important legislation. It has come through the Dáil already. It is a technical Bill but important nonetheless. The aim of the Bill is to streamline and strengthen Ireland's...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I am trying to do so. It is a business-related issue. While the Minister of State is before the House, I will raise the issue of work permits and people in the workforce. There is a real problem whereby people apply for work permits and get accepted, but are refused a visa and then cannot be reimbursed for applying for their work permit. Surely, there is something we can do for...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Will Sinn Féin stop it straight away if it gets in?

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Next Tuesday.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I thank the Minister for being here. She said at the outset that she had full confidence in the board but she gave a strong statement a couple of minutes ago about things the board did that were totally unsatisfactory, especially in terms of its relations with politicians on this committee. What does the board have to do for the Minister to lose confidence in it?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The ordinary person watching this committee's meetings over the past number of months would ask how the Minister could possibly have confidence in those people. It is a question that we get asked all of the time. We are asked how we can have confidence in the board when its members have been so poor in their answering and so poor in their management over the last few months. The Minister...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Does extending that extend the timing for completing the review? Has the cost increased as well?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Will the cost increase?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Has the Minister got that figure yet?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is that in total or in addition?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The Minister said she would not like to see compulsory redundancies. Is that a possibility, however?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Would the Government fund voluntary redundancy, if RTÉ came forward with a strategic plan that would allow it to cut costs but could not afford doing so itself?