Results 11,281-11,300 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Other Questions: Job Protection (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Clearly, I would have to say that from our discussions with the senior executives of Bank of America, they have been very positive, very well disposed towards the workforce and very pleased with the quality of work that is done there. They want to retain that. The Deputy will note that during recent years, although having announced their intention to sell, they have stuck with the business...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 11 together. My Department tracks the agency supported enterprises in regional towns and their hinterlands. Our agencies have regional offices who seek to promote the assets of the region and develop their enterprises. Forfás has conducted research on the regional strengths and weaknesses’ from an enterprise perspective. However, most of...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The timelines are published but I do not have them with me. It is either the third or fourth quarter this year. This is the first time there has been an attempt to develop a strategy with a number of county LEOs. We will also have the IDA and Enterprise Ireland strategies and we will seek to have a genuine forum in which other stakeholders such as local authorities can engage with us on...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: This is our first iteration of this and we have to be realistic. We must build on what we know about, which is enterprise start-up, attracting foreign direct investment, mentoring and running enterprise centres. The question will be how we do a better job of driving enterprise growth in the region. Regions will be based on the traditional IDA model. We recognise towns and the LEOs will...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I do not accept that there has been too much focus on FDI. We had to have an export-led recovery. The domestic economy has been on the floor for the past four years and this has not been easy to correct because of the State finances and finances of individuals and so on. Our focus on Irish companies exporting abroad and attracting new investment continues to be absolutely vital. I agree...

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Since Action Plan for Jobs was introduced in 2012, the Government has implemented over 500 actions to support job creation across all Government Departments and a significant number of State agencies. The aim of the action plan is to create a supportive operating environment for businesses in order to allow employment to grow across all sectors. The 2012 action plan contained 270 actions...

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I fully agree with the Deputy that monitoring is vital, although it is not done by my Department but by a monitoring committee, including the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. It is a whole-of-Government approach to monitoring. As they say in the United States, biting with the president's teeth is very important in delivering performance across all the silos. This year we have had...

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: This continues to be a central concern for me, as it does also for the Deputy. I monitor the new lending figures by sector as well as the refusal rates which thankfully have shown some signs of improvement. I also monitor the decisions of the Companies Registration Office and the picture remains one whereby the banks have not properly adjusted to their role in supporting SMEs. They still...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I am conscious of the challenges facing the south-east and that is why I commissioned Forfás to undertake the south-east regional employment action plan. I initiated the south-east forum which bring together the agencies and stakeholders involved. Work is going on to implement that plan and significant progress has been made. Since 2011, there have been 79 IDA-sposored site visits by...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Waterford certainly has not been excluded. I have held two Action Plan for Jobs meetings there and intend to have more. In the first phase of the support for business pilot initiative, just one meeting is being held in Dublin. We will look at Waterford in the next phase. I see the merit of that. There is no region I have visited more often in an effort to understand the needs of...

Other Questions: Regional Development (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The point I was making to Deputy Tóibín was that we cannot look to the capacity of the IDA to provide for every town and village. The IDA cannot fill that gap and never will. A large region like the south east with a significant educational asset in the Waterford Institute of Technology and its established company base in food, pharmaceuticals and other sectors is a cluster we...

Other Questions: Employment Rights Issues (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Zero hours contracts are covered by contract law and must be entered into freely by the employer and the employee. They cannot be forced upon an employee. Zero hours contracts are normally found in sectors such as retail, health care and hospitality. I am very conscious that in certain circumstances they may be of great benefit to both employers and employees. They allow greater...

Other Questions: Employment Rights Issues (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Clearly, part-time work does not provide a full-time income support, which will always be the case. There has been a pattern in the recovery whereby there was an initial growth in part-time work whereas now 90% of increased employment relates to full-time positions, which is encouraging. Part-time workers are protected by employment law and must get the same terms and conditions as...

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Níl Gaeilge shách mhaith agam chun ceisteanna a fhreagairt as Gaeilge. Mar sin, tá orm caint as Béarla. I would not like to mislead the House by answering the questions inaccurately in any way. I share Deputy Calleary's welcoming of the report. As he indicated, it reveals very severe weaknesses in the process that existed. This has been the subject of reports over...

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: He has delivered a report to the Dáil and acted on it, and we are fixing a system that clearly has been malfunctioning over a long period.

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: It is simply not true that the Minister for Justice and Equality committed any serious wrong; that is not the case. He acted absolutely correctly in respect of the handling of complaints that came this way. Deputy Calleary's party had an opportunity last week to debate this. We spent all day debating precisely this issue. The Minister for Justice and Equality set out his position and...

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: He has acknowledged that value.

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The only issue on which the Deputy's party in my belief for largely political reasons seeks to focus is the question as to whether-----

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: No, that is not the case. The only issue, on which the Deputy's party seeks to focus, was a discussion as to whether there was co-operation between the O'Mahoney investigation and the whistleblowers. We know as a matter of fact that there was no such co-operation; there was not any interaction between the two bodies.

Leaders' Questions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: As the Taoiseach said yesterday, different opinions can be formed as to what went wrong in that case. Clearly it did not happen on either side the way one would want such an investigation to be conducted. As far as the Minister for Justice and Equality is concerned-----