Results 7,561-7,580 of 8,305 for speaker:Peter Burke

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Energy Policy (22 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I agree with the Deputy's assessment that energy policy is an extremely broad and cross-cutting policy area, with impacts across our economy and society. Its impacts range from housing delivery to enterprise competitiveness, from the cost of living for households, to national infrastructure planning. While energy policy broadly sits under the remit of the Department of the Environment,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Trade Agreements (23 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: The EU-Mercosur Agreement is designed to cement the close political and economic relations between the EU and Mercosur countries and represents a commitment to rules-based international trade. Since formal negotiations concluded in 2019, the global trade policy landscape has changed considerably. The rise in trade nationalism, the economic impacts of COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Budgets (23 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: As the Deputy will be aware, last June I announced that €300 million will be available to drive the decarbonisation of Ireland’s industrial emitters over the coming years. The fund will be used by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to support client companies to reduce their emissions between now and 2030 through the Environmental Aid scheme. The €300 million in...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Budgets (23 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: The next cycle of the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme will operate for the period 2025 to 2029 and will have a record allocation of €250 million. The Scheme is administered by Enterprise Ireland and the amount that is committed in any one of the five years of the programme is dependant on the results of competitive calls that EI will open. The actual amount that is drawn down for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the Deputy for his very important question. We know small family businesses are the backbone of the economy. They employ two thirds of all employees in our country and drive so much vital economic activity across many of our communities. In the first few weeks of my appointment as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I introduced an SME package which brought a second round...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I have really changed the direction of the Department to focus on small businesses. The Deputy can see that from the SME package I brought in and the SME test now having received Cabinet approval such that every statutory instrument, regulation or primary legislation change must have an SME impact assessment. We have put money behind it, with the enormous amount of grant support that is now...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: It is very difficult to get through everything in a minute. I will make a decision on sick pay before the end of the year. As the Deputy will be aware, having been in the Department when many of the regulations came in, we are trying to take a pace, reduce the burden and put our SMEs first. On energy, we had a competitiveness summit in recent months. We are directing massive investment...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: This is a similar question to the previous one. It is important. We are trying to work with family businesses across the country. We brought in the SME package in the first weeks after I was appointed by the new Taoiseach. We are focusing on trying to lower the cost base for so many family businesses. We have brought in initiatives, such as ensuring they have support through...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the Deputy again for pointing out the challenges and some of the solutions. I absolutely agree with her that we need to do more. We are clear about that. We are at the end of the lifetime of this Government and it will be up to political parties to bring forward their ideas, reflected in their manifestos, in the weeks ahead and ask the people to adjudicate on what we have done in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I contest what KPMG said as I have heard many people in the business sector advocate the supports in place, which have been enhanced in budget 2025, especially in respect of innovation and the start-up space. Funding for companies trying to scale has been significant. We have worked to close the bridge with the UK because there is a big divide with regard to capital gains tax and incentives...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Development (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the Deputy for his question. Regional development is a key element of the Government's enterprise policy and is a key focus of the work of my Department and our enterprise development agencies. On job creation, the agencies of my Department are deeply committed to fostering investment in jobs across the manufacturing and services sectors throughout the country. This commitment...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Development (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I again thank Deputy Durkan for his very important question. He rightly points out that it is important to look at the threats on the horizon. Globalisation is a significant threat to our foreign direct investment. We live in a very fragmented international geopolitical landscape. We can see that there are many trade tensions emanating across the globe. In a European context, we are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Development (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: That is another exceptionally good question. We had a competitiveness summit a couple of months ago, and one of the key areas we are looking at is the changes in the Single Market and the exemptions that have been provided through the state-aid context. Ireland must be very careful in that regard because we are trying to ensure uniformity in the Single Market in order that it is a level...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the members of the committee for inviting me to speak. With me are: Mr. Gary Tobin, assistant secretary with our enterprise strategy, competitiveness and evaluation division; Mr. Joseph Cummins, head of our climate action and energy policy unit; Ms Cathy Madden and Aisling McCarthy from our climate action programmes unit; and Mr. Jack McDermott from our offshore wind strategy unit. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: Both are important. It is not simple to decouple them. We need to be clear about the value that data centres bring to our economy. Ours is a modern economy that has attracted significant investment. Approximately one in every seven euro that we will spend under budget 2025 will come from foreign direct investment, that is, corporation tax, in our economy. As a value proposition, our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: We need large energy users. If we have 37 GW of energy by 2050, we need to use the value of that energy on our shore. We do not want to export everything, but to use that energy for our society so that we can benefit from the economic value it adds.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: No. What I said clearly was that we had the large capacity to increase our renewable, clean, green energy. With the new legislation that has been introduced, we have a new pathway for our offshore renewable contracts, four of which have been signed on the east coast. We have a significant pipeline of renewable, clean, green energy, both via onshore and offshore wind and through other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: They underwrite very significant employment in this country, and do not mistake that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: The actual data centres themselves-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of Climate Action Plan 2024: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (24 Oct 2024)

Peter Burke: There are thousands of jobs directly related to the prevalence of data centres in this country and do not in any way underestimate that, because there are and I know there are.