Results 11,181-11,200 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: At the last Action Plan for Jobs meeting I attended in Portlaoise, the Department of Social Protection was represented with a stall from which it advertised its wares. All the local businesses were invited to that meeting.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: A new initiative is being rolled out in Dublin, Cork and Galway whereby 40 agencies will come together in a single location.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: The LEO website will deliver that information.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: A communications strategy will be rolled out in 2014. It will be driven by the Department of the Taoiseach so that it applies across all Departments. I will supply the committee with further information on the strategy. In regard to land hoarding, the Department of the Taoiseach is co-ordinating a construction strategy which it intends to publish by early April. I do not know whether tax...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: On the regional issue, this is an area that, I suspect, the committee will come back to. We, on this side of the table, need to put a good deal of thought into it and we are starting that process. I do not know in which quarter, but we are to produce a framework during the course of the year. It will take a bit of work on our side and I would be interested in the committee's thinking on...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: I thank the Chairman for his acknowledgement. It is a good tool. It does not just allow the committee an input, but we also have meetings with enterprise. The rolling programme means that anything started this year can be enhanced and developed. To answer someone's question, the measures we take in previous years are maintained. The Chairman is right about using Revenue. The...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: It should.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: If we knew of offices where it was not happening, the Department of Social Protection would be keen to correct that situation. One of its key targets is building a network with employers.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: This is a matter for the Department of Social Protection.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: We will ask our counterparts in that Department to consider the retention of entitlements for a certain period. They have experience in this regard. Under the old back to work allowance, which preceded the back to work enterprise allowance, people retained 75% for this, that and so on. They will at least be able to ascertain whether it worked when it was there. My official, Mr. William...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: They were.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: Let us ask them to look back on the experience of those schemes. Do they suggest that they are a useful way of dealing with the matter? With regard to failure, Microfinance Ireland approves about 50% of the applications submitted to it and builds in a loss of around 20%. There is an expectation that when it takes a punt it will lose in 20% of cases. They cannot work on the basis that the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: For very good reason they do not. This month 37,000 people left the live register out of a figure of over 300,000, so 10% leave the live register every month. They are not a stock that exists for all time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: The live register rotates all the time. It is not as if the same people will remain on the register even if we do nothing because people move on and off the register. It will be different people because the register churns all the time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would say to me that there is a risk one can take and we will accept one taking a 20% risk, but it is not going to allow me to take an 80% risk, and for good reason. The issue is whether the Department is being more conservative than is appropriate in light of the discretion it has been given and in the way it has been applied. There has not...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: The real issue is getting more of the declined cases to look at micro-finance.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: That is the issue, rather than whether one should take a bigger risk.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: Red tape was mentioned. There was a target of a 20% reduction in the cost of administration. Some Departments, including my own, have been exemplary and hit their targets. The Revenue Commissioners and the CSO are also great examples. However, some Departments have not been successful. One of our ambitions is to create momentum through the quarterly reports-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: There is the issue of displacement and deadweight. The overseers, wherever they are, would come in and ask what is the deadweight, what is the minimum to be given out and whether is it going to happen anyhow.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)
Richard Bruton: The Chairman is right. Sometimes a committee gets together and conspires to make a brilliant scheme, but it will not work because it is so complex. We have seen that with a number of schemes. Our target this year is to simplify a few of the entrepreneurship schemes in the tax area, which would be a good day's work. I know the Minister for Finance is keen to do so.