Results 7,861-7,880 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Ministerial Meetings: Ministerial Meetings (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: During 2011, I attended the Trade and Business North South Ministerial Council, which I chaired, and two meetings of the North South Plenary between the Taoiseach and First and Deputy First Ministers. The Ministers of State at my Department and I also attended a number of North South conferences and events during the course of 2011. On 1 March next, I will attend the next meeting of the...

Written Answers — Job Creation: Job Creation (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: Since coming into office last March, the Government has taken a series of actions to help enterprises to create jobs. We launched a Jobs Initiative last May, within two months of the Government coming into office, to stimulate domestic demand and restore confidence in the economy internationally. We have brought stability to the banking system by recapitalising the banks and establishing two...

Written Answers — Industrial Disputes: Industrial Disputes (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The dispute at the Vita Cortex factory in Cork involves 32 workers who have been engaged in a sit-in at the factory since 16 December last arising from a dispute with their employer over redundancy payments. The workers are seeking severance terms of 2.9 weeks' pay per year of service, inclusive of statutory redundancy, in line with previous redundancy deals at the company. In the interest of...

Written Answers — State Agencies: State Agencies (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 300 and 301 together. There are eight Bodies under the aegis of my Department listed in Appendix IIA of the Government Statement on Public Service Reform and the current position with regard to their proposed rationalisation is set out below. The National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority are to be merged. As both agencies are established under...

Written Answers — State Agencies: State Agencies (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Government announced in the Public Service Reform Plan on 17 November 2011, in the context of its consideration of the streamlining of State Agencies, that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) would be put in place with all Agencies by June 2012. My Department is committed to developing, as appropriate, service level agreements for the Agencies under its remit, by this deadline. The Deputy...

Written Answers — State Agencies: State Agencies (24 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The information sought by the Deputy will be published in the annual reports of the agencies concerned in the normal way and I would direct the Deputy to the agencies concerned. The fees paid to members of State Boards are set down by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and have been subject to reductions with effect from January 2010. While I will keep under review the position...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The role of Government is not to create jobs directly but to create the appropriate business environment by making the right policy decisions to help enterprise to grow, to create new jobs and to maintain existing jobs. In the wake of many years of unsustainable policies that produced anoversized construction sector, a property bubble, a collapse in the public finances, and years of...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy and his party continually want to pretend that the past never happened but the reality is that the economic collapse-----

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: -----that we have faced is the product of a number of years of bad policy, and during those years we lost 350,000 jobs under the previous Government's remit.

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The challenge for this Government is to pick up a very difficult environment and start to rebuild the economy.

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The truth of it is that it will take painstaking work. We have had to restructure the banks to put them in a position where they can once again lend to small businesses. As I said in my reply, we have had successes in the past 12 months, despite the Deputy's unwillingness to recognise them. For example, in the food sector we have had the best year ever with 14% growth in food exports. That...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: A plan was launched last year by the Taoiseach, as the Deputy may know, in respect of the potential for growth in the financial services sector. It is expected that the financial services sector has the capacity to create 10,000 additional jobs in the foreseeable future. Therefore, there is planning. Obviously, there are other parts of banking that we know about in light of the recent...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: Job creation is at the top of the Government's agenda. Since we came into office, this Government has been working to create the improved economic conditions which will support the maintenance of existing jobs and the creation of new ones. Our objective is to put the country back on the road to economic recovery and full employment. It is an unfortunate reality that companies, for a wide...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The reason for that is that we have agencies, such as Enterprise Ireland which specialises in the support of indigenous companies and IDA which specialises in the support of foreign owned companies who come to locate here. They have the competitive advantage within the State system of understanding the needs of those businesses. To suggest, as the Deputy is doing, that we create a new...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The economy is undergoing a difficult transformation. Some sectors grew to a scale that is not sustainable. As the Deputy knows, the construction sector grew to unsustainable levels. The task of Government is to help companies that have a viable future to create that future, but we must also look at companies that are not able to survive in their present form but can be helped to establish...

Trade Relations (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The full details of our trade balance are set out in the tables that follow this reply. Complete data for 2011 are not yet available. In summary, Ireland's trade balance with the UK improved from a deficit of €385 million in 2007 to a surplus of €3,009 million in 2010. The trade balance with BRIC countries improved from a deficit of €923 million in 2007 to a surplus of €2,714...

Trade Relations (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: Yes.

Trade Relations (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: Unfortunately, the way the Deputy asked the question means that a simple aggregate figure has not been provided. Our trade surplus with the UK increased from €2.8 billion to €3 billion from 2009 to 2010. Our trade surplus with the BRIC countries increased from €1.99 billion to €2.7 billion over the same period. Our trade surplus with the EU decreased slightly from €26.5 billion...

Trade Relations (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy is looking for figures that have not been compiled in the way he seeks. I remind him that we have authoritative data up to the end of October only.

Trade Relations (25 Jan 2012)

Richard Bruton: There has been an increase in our trade to the four BRIC countries. The Deputy's point is right, overall. Even though over a four-year period there has been a 50% increase in trade to the BRIC countries, as a proportion of our overall trade, it continues to be modest. One of the ambitions that was set in the programme for Government was to build on our efforts in this area. To be fair, it...