Results 20,181-20,200 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Job Creation (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: My Department and its agencies are working towards ambitious targets to support job creation, while ensuring employment and investment are distributed as evenly as possible across the country, thus ensuring every region can achieve its potential. Counties Longford and Westmeath have experienced significant growth in both employment and investment in recent years, with 19,400 more people in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Enterprise Development Fund (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I was delighted to visit Athy with the Deputy several months ago. Prior to that, I was there at the time, unfortunately, the Coca-Cola plant reduced its staff there. I was down there recently for the launch of the Athy food hub project. I saw at first hand the plans to convert the historical old model school building into a food innovation hub. It is a great project supported by...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Enterprise Development Fund (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: Much work is going on in Kildare County Council. Jacqui McNabb in the Kildare local enterprise office is supportive of this project and has done much work on it. What is good about this project is collaboration. That is what we are trying to encourage across the country. It is collaboration between the local enterprise office, the local education providers, the local authorities and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Supports (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 10 together. Since 2016, my Department has worked with the enterprise development agencies, businesses and representative bodies to ensure we have the appropriate mix of supports for businesses to prepare and manage through whatever Brexit we may face over the coming period. The most immediate consequences of a hard Brexit are likely to be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: IDA Ireland had a record year last year and its half-year results this year are outstanding. More than 132,000 people are employed in 681 IDA client companies located outside Dublin. Some 56% of all new foreign direct investment jobs created last year were based in regional locations. I will give Deputy Troy some data on his own county. There are 21 IDA client companies in County...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: County Longford has seen a 20% increase in IDA client supported job creation in 2018.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I forgot to mention Center Parcs.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I am talking about creating jobs in Center Parcs.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I am not claiming anything.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: IDA Ireland has been doing wonderful work. It certainly has a strong focus on the regions. There are of course areas where we want to see improvement. We launched the regional enterprise development plans to identify the positives and build on them, but also to identify the gaps and how to improve where we need to improve. That is why we have €60 million in the regional enterprise...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regional Enterprise Development Fund (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: My Department's regional enterprise development fund, REDF, is a competitive fund. It has been introduced to co-finance the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative enterprise projects that can make a significant impact on enterprise development in the regions to help to sustain and add to employment at county, regional and national level. The scheme is also aimed at...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: IDA Ireland Site Visits (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: Regional development remains a key priority for me and my Department. We understand the importance of achieving the best possible spread of employment and investment across the country, and my Department and its agencies have been working hard towards that goal. That will remain the case in 2020 and beyond. It is, therefore, highly positive that significant progress has already been made...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Flexible Work Practices (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. My Department and I understand the importance and potential of flexible working. As the nature of work and society changes, the way in which we organise work must also change. A labour market which offers flexible working solutions can result in tangible benefits for employers, employees and wider society. This is addressed under pillar 4 of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Flexible Work Practices (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I absolutely support flexible working arrangements. That is why earlier this year the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and I held a consultation event at Cavan Digital Hub, a new hub in the town of Cavan that allows people to co-work and work remotely. It is also a landing base for companies that want to come into the region. I held the event to hear and promote the views of employers and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Flexible Work Practices (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: The Minister, Deputy Bruton, and I have already held a consultation event. As I said, we want to hear the views of employers and employees because it is a win-win for everybody. It is a question of how we can find the right way to do it. The findings of the consultation will feed into the research on remote working being carried out by my Department. We want to figure out through it the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Economic Competitiveness (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Notwithstanding our strong economic growth, addressing Ireland's cost competitiveness remains a key economic priority for Government and we continue to monitor Ireland's cost base and analyse the factors that are crucial to improving our cost competitiveness. Our competitiveness is reflected in a range of economic metrics such as high economic...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Economic Competitiveness (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: Ireland has made progress in recent years to improve its capital tax offering to entrepreneurs. The capital gains tax, CGT, entrepreneur relief was introduced in budget 2016 and provided for a reduced rate of capital gains tax of €20% for entrepreneurs - that was down from 33% - subject to a lifetime threshold of €1 million in gains and to meeting certain criteria. The relief...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Economic Competitiveness (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: We take on board the recommendations of the NCC and I will certainly provide information on where those recommendations, many of which have been complied with, are at. I included in the Future Jobs Ireland plan a condition that the recommendations would have to be formally reported on, on a regular basis, something about which I am very conscious. On the taxation side, budget 2020 saw the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Preparations (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: I want to reassure the Deputy that there is a range of schemes and that businesses are taking up those schemes. The suite of schemes announced yesterday in the budget have different aspects, being in the form of loans, grants or equity. They will enable Enterprise Ireland to provide a bespoke response to each individual company, depending on its requirements, and companies will be assessed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Preparations (9 Oct 2019)

Heather Humphreys: To clarify, customs training is run by Enterprise Ireland and through the local enterprise offices, LEOs. Much customs training has been carried out and 917 participants have attended customs training. What we have now is "clear customs", which is a much more in-depth training programme for the custom agents, and we also provide a grant of €6,000 per employee, up to ten employees in...