Results 10,421-10,440 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Joint Labour Committees (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The conditions of the decision to announce an extension of the 9% Value Added Tax (VAT) rate for the tourism and hospitality industry are as outlined by Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D. who is the Minister with responsibility for VAT. This extension until February 2023 is very welcome and should assist the sector greatly as one of the sectors which was most impacted by public...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The Trading Online Voucher Scheme (TOVs) offers a voucher of up to €2,500 (50% co- funded by the applicant) to help businesses develop their online trading capability and includes training sessions that cover various topics, including developing a website, digital marketing, social media for business and search engine optimisation. The information provided is impartial and will assist...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The employment permits system is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages, in circumstances where there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one. The system is managed through the use of lists designating highly skilled and ineligible...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015 prohibit an employer from discriminating against an employee or prospective employee in relation to access to employment, conditions of employment, training or experience for or in relation to employment, promotion or regrading or classification of posts. Employers are required to operate fair recruitment procedures from the outset that are free...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (19 May 2022)

Damien English: An Employment Regulation Order fixes minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for workers in certain sectors and employers in those sectors are obliged to pay wage rates and provide conditions of employment not less favourable than those prescribed. An employer of workers to whom an ERO applies must keep records of wages, payments, etc., and must retain these records for three years....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Health and Safety (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 82 together. AsI outlined in my speech to the Dáil during the Second Stage Debate on the Private Members Bill, the Workplace Ventilation (COVID-19) Bill 2021, there were certain legal and practical aspects to the Bill that required more detailed consideration. I asked the Health and Safety Authority, under section 57 of the Safety Health and...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: At the outset I would encourage any person looking to start, expand or pivot their business to contact their Local Enterprise Office as they continue to provide a ‘first stop shop’ or signposting for all available Government business supports. The Local Enterprise Offices offer supports to all entrepreneurs, provided they meet the general eligibility criteria. Local...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Ireland’s employment permit system is designed to supplement the State’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,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Labour Market (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Ireland has a clear division between economic migration and general immigration policies. My Department administers the employment permits legislation and criteria for the granting of employment permit permissions to work in the State. Under the Employment Permits Acts (as amended), in order to work in the State, all non-EEA nationals require a valid employment permit or relevant immigration...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Regional Development (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Regional enterprise development is a key policy priority of mine and this Government. Throughout 2021, my Department oversaw the development of nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024, including for the South-West which covers counties Cork and Kerry. A key feature and strength of the Regional Enterprise Plans is that they are developed using a ‘bottom-up’ approach,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Regional Development (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Balanced regional development is a key policy priority of mine and this Government. My Department contributes to this agenda in a number of ways, including through the work of the enterprise agencies and through our national enterprise policy, ‘Enterprise 2025 renewed’. A forthcoming White Paper on enterprise policy, will further this commitment to balanced economic development....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: My Department has set out in its statement of strategy its intention to make Ireland the best place to succeed in business across all regions of our country, with vibrant enterprises, more high-quality employment, growing trade, fair workplaces, and higher productivity. We are supporting our local business communities through the ongoing work of our enterprise agencies, the IDA,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Enterprise Centres and working hubs provide affordable physical workspace for businesses across the country and deliver training and soft supports to their tenants and other companies in their locality and regional area while providing facilities for remote working, helping start-ups to scale internationally and attracting small scale FDI. To date, my Department has provided funding of...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Policy (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Ireland is one of a very few locations with a proven record of accomplishment in the financial services and technology arena and is viewed as a strategic hub for innovation in fintech. Many of the world’s leading companies have a significant presence in Ireland, with activity spread right across the sector including Online Payments & Processing, Digital Banking, Cross Border...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Health and Safety (19 May 2022)

Damien English: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) recorded inspections according to the NACE sector in which they took place. The relevant NACE sub sectors in this case are those relating to the “processing and preserving of meat and production of meat products”. The number of inspections for 2017 – May 2020 are as follows: - ...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Small and Medium Enterprises (19 May 2022)

Damien English: My Department, through our enterprise agencies, provides our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a comprehensive suite of direct financial and soft supports. The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) can offer direct grant aid to microenterprises (10 employees or fewer) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors which, over time, have the potential to develop...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 May 2022)

Damien English: As the Deputy knows, the permits do not cover that area at the moment but we are doing a review which is starting in the next couple of weeks. We have been engaging with the various Departments and agencies over the last couple of weeks to gather the evidence to make the case. If there is a case being made to extend the work permits into that area, it is something we can do. The decision...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 May 2022)

Damien English: A new work group was set up by the Tánaiste in recent weeks to look at the whole area of self-employment. It brings together all the members of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. The first meeting took place took two weeks ago, which I chaired. The work group is reviewing all of these issues and will bring forward recommendations, through LEEF, to my Department and the...

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Payment of Interns) Bill 2022: Second Stage (25 May 2022)

Damien English: It was important that I came in early on this debate because we are not opposing the Bill and I want to be clear on that. I thank Senator Sherlock and her team, including Senator Wall, for bringing forward this Bill. We are happy to engage with the Senator to get behind what it is that she genuinely wants to achieve and to see if it threatens the legal position or not. We need to deal with...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (24 May 2022)

Damien English: My 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...