Results 6,181-6,200 of 14,731 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Female Entrepreneurship, Women in Tech Industries, Skills Needs and Balanced Regional Development: (Resumed) ISME, Startup Ireland, Cork Innovates and IDA Ireland (10 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: I have been critical of the regional performance and statistics, which we can discuss on another occasion. One of the strengths of our multinational community is its ability to reinvent itself. Ms Buckley mentioned companies that have been in Ireland for 40 years and are doing something completely different now because of the strength of the Irish team and research and development coming up...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Female Entrepreneurship, Women in Tech Industries, Skills Needs and Balanced Regional Development: (Resumed) ISME, Startup Ireland, Cork Innovates and IDA Ireland (10 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: I ask the three groups to imagine being before a group of 15-year olds, who are likely to feel pushed towards a permanent pensionable job. What five words would the witnesses use in presentation to persuade these 15-year olds to go down the entrepreneurship route and establish their own businesses?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Female Entrepreneurship, Women in Tech Industries, Skills Needs and Balanced Regional Development: (Resumed) ISME, Startup Ireland, Cork Innovates and IDA Ireland (10 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: Ms Porter said less than one quarter of females had a STEM background.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Female Entrepreneurship, Women in Tech Industries, Skills Needs and Balanced Regional Development: (Resumed) ISME, Startup Ireland, Cork Innovates and IDA Ireland (10 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: What choices were available to them? In what other directions did they go? What subjects did they do instead of STEM?

Order of Business (11 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: Turn it up.

Order of Business (11 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: No. 49, the Amendment to the Constitution Bill, is to amend Article 29 in order to recognise the international agreement on the Patent Court. We will have a raft of referendums this year, so is it possible to include it? We were promised that there would be a referendum on this last year. It is not in any way contentious, but if we do not ratify the agreement on the unified Patent Court,...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Local Authority Funding (11 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: 56. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of money allocated in 2013 and in 2014 to Mayo County Council for the purposes of coastal defences and addressing coastal erosion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6294/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Credit Availability (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: 1. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason there are no specific actions in the Action Plan for Jobs to deal with the high corporate debt burden which the action plan identifies as a drag on growth and employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6098/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Credit Availability (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: The Action Plan for Jobs has identified high corporate debt burden as a significant risk to economic growth and, in consequence, to job creation. There are no specific actions outlined in the action plan and I want to pursue the Minister's thoughts on this area.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Credit Availability (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: The last item the Minister mentioned sounds like a worthy scheme. In cases of which I have been made aware, one of the main banks - not a pillar bank - is actively exiting the SME market and trying to sell loans off to various venture or vulture funds. The pillar banks have put facilities in place, but the bank that is exiting the SME market will not accept them. Will the Minister's...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Credit Availability (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: The credit guarantee scheme and its revision have been announced as often as I have had hot breakfasts. Will it be done this session? Will it be done before Easter? The scheme was identified as flawed in October 2013, when the Department reviewed it. The new element the Minister has introduced this morning is absolutely vital and urgent because the bank I am referring to, which is one of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: 4. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to raise the take-home pay and working conditions of low-income workers; if this will include changes to the existing protection for persons on zero hours contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6271/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: Could the Minister of State confirm the time line for the low pay commission? I know he has asked the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to begin pre-legislative scrutiny on the minimum wage Bill. I want to focus our discussion zero-hours contracts. Will they be the subject of separate action on the part of the Minister of State and will they come under the remit of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: In respect of the UL group, will there be public consultation or will it focus primarily on research and data? Will the group have the chance to speak to workers? Zero-hours contracts are not completely bad if there are some companies that need them, but some companies are abusing them and treating workers like the navvies in England - wait on a corner and see whether a man comes along and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: One area where zero-hour contracts are used is retail. Will the Minister of State express his views, if he wishes to, on the position of the largest retail company in the country writing to all of its workers, distancing itself from a Labour Court recommendation? The Labour Court has been the foundation of our industrial relations policy since its establishment. While its recommendations...

Other Questions: Research and Development Supports (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: 11. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to encourage greater levels of research and development here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6096/15]

Other Questions: Research and Development Supports (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: This is merely to discuss with the Minister the area of research and development and where we are in attaining the Horizon 2020 targets. There is some superb work under way. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation visited UCD and UCC. Where is the work with SMEs and how are SMEs being encouraged to get involved in the research and development agenda?

Other Questions: Research and Development Supports (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: I endorse the Minister of State's remarks about SFI. It is doing a superb job and its research centres are excellent. To drill down into those statistics the Minister of State quoted, foreign-owned enterprises are responsible for 70% of research and development expenditure in the country. That means Irish indigenous companies are far behind the curve when it comes to research and...

Other Questions: Research and Development Supports (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: Combilift is a fantastic company. There are a range of companies in the north east - they seem to be an innovative lot up there - but we should be looking for the next Combilift or McHale Engineering. This is the chance, with the extra resources allocated to Horizon 2020. I would urge the Minister of State to push the LEOs harder in this space because these offices have the business...

Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Feb 2015)

Dara Calleary: I welcome the chance to speak on the Bill. If we are to be honest, it could be renamed "the rearranging of deckchairs on the TitanicBill". As a country, we must face the fact that our current rates system and this tax on businesses is wrong and utterly inefficient. It is a tax on enterprise and job creation for which nothing is repaid. It is a basic funding mechanism for local government,...