Results 10,381-10,400 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (17 May 2022)

Damien English: The State's employment permit system is designed to supplement Ireland's skills and labour supply over the short to medium term by allowing enterprises to recruit nationals from outside the EEA, where such skills or expertise cannot be sourced from within the EEA at that time. The system is, by design, vacancy led and managed through the operation of the occupation lists: the critical skills...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (17 May 2022)

Damien English: The State's employment permit system is designed to supplement Ireland's skills and labour supply over the short to medium term by allowing enterprises to recruit nationals from outside the EEA, where such skills or expertise cannot be sourced from within the EEA at that time. The system is, by design, vacancy led and managed through the operation of the occupation lists: the critical skills...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 May 2022)

Damien English: The Department experienced a significant increase in applications for employment permits in the past year, impacting on processing times. From the start of January to the end of December 2021, some 27,666 applications were received, representing a 69% increase over the same period in 2020 (16,293) and a 47% increase on 2019 (18,811), which itself represented an 11 year high in applications....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Legislative Measures (18 May 2022)

Damien English: My officials have agreed with the officials of the Department of Transport to propose an amendment to the Workplace Relations Act 2015 that will grant the WRC the jurisdiction to hear complaints of breaches of the Working Time at Sea Directive. As this is a matter that exceeds the minimum measures contained in the Directive, primary legislation is required. The amendment will be brought...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 May 2022)

Damien English: Ireland’s employment permits system is designed to accommodate the arrival of non-EEA nationals to fill skills and labour gaps for the benefit of our economy, in the short to medium term but this objective must be balanced by the need to ensure that there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one. The system is...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Workplace Relations Commission (18 May 2022)

Damien English: The WRC provides two distinct forms of mediation: pre-adjudication mediation and workplace mediation. WRC pre-adjudication mediation is available for any complaint referred to the Adjudication Service where both parties have agreed to participate, and the Director General is of the view that the matter is capable of being resolved through mediation When parties participate in the mediation...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (18 May 2022)

Damien English: As an International Labour Organisation (ILO) Member State, Ireland is committed to ratifying Convention C190. Ratification is being considered in the context of our standard approach to the ratification of international instruments. Ireland does not ratify international conventions until it has been determined that national law is in line with the provisions of the international instrument....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (19 May 2022)

Damien English: It is important to emphasise that Ireland's system of industrial relations is essentially voluntary in nature and that responsibility for the resolution of industrial disputes between employers and workers rests in the first instance with the employer, the workers and their representatives. The State provides the industrial relations dispute settlement mechanisms to support parties in their...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I thank the Deputy. I am sorry I could not hear at the start. There was an issue with the sound. I know the Deputy has not named the case. I am not familiar with it because the details relating to it were not provided with the question.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (19 May 2022)

Damien English: It is a number of cases. The system is not legally binding. We urge all parties to these cases to honour the recommendations if they can and to follow the advice. That is how it works best. The arrangement has served us well over the last years. In these disputes, the recommendation comes from the WRC and Labour Court and should be followed as well as possible in most cases. We would...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (19 May 2022)

Damien English: We have been very clear here. We should respect the advice and guidance of the WRC. We encourage that. Naturally we ask all parties to do that and we do that on a regular basis be it public or private organisations. I am not familiar with the situations the Deputy is raising. If it is a funding issue it has to be directly raised with the Minister or Department with responsibility for the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The Deputy keeps saying that but he keeps referring to a situation I do not know about.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I thank Deputy Naughten for raising the question in respect of work permits. I agree with him on the issue of access to skills. Every company we talk to across the country raises the issue with us. The regional enterprise plans will be of major assistance in helping us focus our minds on this. I also refer to the regional skills fora and various national skills strategies working across...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I do not think any of us would stand over the processing time for permits over the last year. However, we have to recognise that the number of applications went up by 70% and those numbers are continuing to increase this year. It looks like there will be over 35,000 permits applied for this year. We have put an action plan together since last November under the guidance of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: For non-trusted partners it is about 21 weeks. With the team of people involved now, we are quite happy that we will make great inroads into that time over the next couple of weeks. The 3,000 permits that were applied for since October in the horticulture and meat industry sectors are nearly all processed now which is a big bang. That will help us focus on bringing the timeline well down...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: A couple of issues there are not under our Department. I understand the report on social housing limits is with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, at the moment and he hopes to bring forward those changes very soon. He took questions on the matter here last week. That would be a positive step. We all recognise that they have not changed since 2011. The social housing barrier and the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 33, 37, 52, 58 and 59 together. I thank Deputy Connolly and her colleagues for tabling them. As we have outlined previously to both Houses, universal and equitable access to safe, effective and affordable vaccines, diagnostics and treatments is crucial in the global fight against Covid-19. This is at the heart of the Irish Government's international...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I was not at that committee but will be happy to read back over the submissions on that. I have not had a chance to get a sense of what is being put forward. Much of the debate on this, including the debates we had in these Houses, focused on supply. The EU always took the position that that would not necessarily be the issue and there were many other parts of it, including the capacity of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The Deputies have raised a few issues there. The debate has not changed much. They are very much focused on IP and the IP regime. The position of the EU has always been that that is not where the sole focus should be. The Deputies and I have differed on that for many months. I am not going to change their minds here. I am happy to consider the letter that was sent to us by the committee...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Childcare Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising this Commencement matter on this very important area. She has outlined very clearly the importance of the Government focusing its work on this space, in conjunction with the private sector. I am pleased she indicated that in the most recent budget, and preceding ones, funding was increased to the sector, which was very important. The focus was on...