Results 9,321-9,340 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Consumer Protection (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: My Department issued a consultation paper on the implementation of Articles 19 and 22 of the Consumer Rights Directive on 6 September 2012. Though the original deadline for responses was 12 October, it was agreed to extend it to 9 November following a number of requests from interested parties. The consultation attracted a sizeable number of responses, a number of which raised issues that...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Consumer Protection (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: My Department has established an informal advisory group, which includes a number of members of the Sales Law Review Group, to consider the most appropriate and effective ways of giving effect to the 124 recommendations contained in the Review Group’s report. The Department plans to issue a number of consultation papers in 2013 on the main areas for reform indicated by the Review...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Jobs Initiative (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Action Plan for Jobs 2012 identifies a number of key economic sectors which the Government will focus on to promote employment opportunities, including Construction.Among the key actions identified for the Construction sector is the development of a National Strategy to 2015, which will outline the opportunities, challenges and actions needed to realise the potential of the sector. Work...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Agencies (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 263 to 265, inclusive, together. Details of revenues raised by IDA Ireland from the sale and rent of IDA owned land and buildings; the total cost incurred by the Agency for the maintenance, security and other costs relating to the land and building managed by the Agency, and the total asset value of IDA’s property buildings in each of the years 2006 to...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: As part of the Forfás Annual Employment Survey, the overall cost per job is calculated each year by reference to the cost of jobs created in companies supported by the Enterprise Development agencies, during and sustained to the end of a seven-year period. The accepted accounting measure for cost per job is ‘Cost per job sustained’. This is calculated by taking into...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: IDA Ireland has informed me that it does not compile statistics on the cost per job created on a county by county basis. The metric used to assess the cost effectiveness of its grant programmes is the cost per job sustained. This measures the level of first time jobs created during a seven year period which are existing at the end of that period against IDA Ireland grants paid during the same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I thank the committee for the invitation to provide a summary of the agenda items for the forthcoming Competitiveness Council meetings in Brussels on 10 and 11 December 2012. I am accompanied by Mr. Philip Kelly, assistant secretary, and Mr. Aidan Hodson, who deals primarily with the Irish Research Council. The first day of the Council will deal with industry and Internal Market items...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: What generally happens in this situation is that if people are handling a dossier for the European Council and attending the working groups that are dealing with it, they make themselves available to the committee to answer any technical questions that may arise. I have no problem if the committee wants a smaller team to attend. It will just mean that we may be corresponding with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: On the issue of public procurement, these directives do not specifically deal with questions such as whether one can build into one's procurement criteria things like the level of unemployment. However, under existing public procurement rules it is possible to include things like unemployment in a region. I know that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Hayes, is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I welcome the support expressed by Deputy Tóibín for the patents law, which is long-awaited and which will be beneficial, with an estimated potential saving of €30,000 per patent. However, I do not think that patent law can get into the much wider issue of transfer pricing. Patent law is essentially about protecting intellectual property rights while transfer pricing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: This is an issue that is of concern to many member states. The Commission will produce a document in March on the issue of better regulation and exemptions for small businesses. I am aware of the French system. The issue for each member state will be to try and see whether it can adapt its regulations to this. We will publish a companies Bill shortly through which we will reduce the audit...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: To be fair, these public procurement packages are to do with what Deputy Lawlor has spoken about. They are there to give contracting authorities more choice over procurement procedures, provided they are open to applications from anyone. Obviously, an effort is being made to encourage the use of electronic procurement, which makes it easier to procure within a member state and across member...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The European Union is facilitating it. It is also encouraging innovative procurement, something for which we are pressing very hard within our own system. The United Kingdom and the United States are more likely than we are to tender to solve a problem before the procurement stage is reached. That approach involves trying to find a company to solve a problem. That company submits a bid to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: There is a balance to be struck.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: That is what the Commission's directives are seeking to provide for and that is what we are seeking to provide for in our discussions with the National Procurement Service. The role of Enterprise Ireland is to make sure we strike that balance. We are trying to encourage the breaking down of these prerequisites before tendering takes place. We have been trying to work with various...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: This has been thrashed out at European level and there have been big cuts. Horizon 2020 is in the category or heading of 1A, which includes a certain bundle. President Van Rompuy has been proposing certain changes in order to secure compromise deals. That is the level at which potential trade-offs between the Common Agricultural Policy and Horizon 2020 are occurring. I do not think there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: There is, through Horizon 2020 and the various existing instruments. No new instrument is being proposed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I share the Deputy's view that mentoring could play a role in procurement. To be fair, InterTradeIreland has run an innovative programme in this regard. One of its most popular programmes helps companies to prepare for procurement, understand how to gain access and go after that business. I do not have data to indicate the success of the programme, but I know there has been a high rate of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: We have no information that the €2.5 billion is being reduced in the MFF envelope but the indications are that, to date, Horizon 2020 has lost €5 billion, so it would come down from €80 billion to €75 billion. InterTradeIreland has an exciting new board, with a former head of the IDA as chairman. It asserts benefit-to-cost ratios of 16:1 in its work, so that is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: That is correct. Agriculture is included in Horizon 2020 so there are opportunities there. With regard to the entrepreneurship plan, the Commission has to publish that by year end.