Results 21,281-21,300 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: To be honest, I do not think fair commentators would conclude that. All member states in the European Union agreed to open negotiations with the US for a trade agreement in the interests of promoting growth and employment in their economies. They also made it very clear that they are determined to maintain their social protection standards, and these are copper-fastened into the mandate...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The EU Council of Ministers gave a mandate to the EU Commission to negotiate the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The scope of that mandate is wide ranging and allows the EU Commission to enter into negotiations with the US on many issues, including investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms, which was the subject of the Deputy's written question. A few weeks ago, the EU...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The issue of whether any trade agreement can have an impact on some regions more than others is undoubtedly true. The reason countries seek to get involved in open trade is that on balance, they make gains. There is a possibility that some regions might be adversely affected. For example, if freer trade is opened up in motor cars and a country has a strong motor car industry, there is the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: To go back to the earlier question on why there is investment protection, the truth is that some countries which enter into trade agreements could introduce discriminatory rules aimed at just a particular company because it was a non-national company. In some cases, we have had outright expropriation of companies that invested in a country. The idea of these investment protection treaties...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy should have put that into the original question and if we had more time, I would have answered that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Construction Sector Strategy (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The Forfás report on Ireland’s construction sector was published last July and presents an outlook for the sector to 2015, based on known and anticipated demands. The report includes a number of proposed actions aimed at generating more certainty in the domestic market, removing constraints and obstacles, and ensuring that the sector is equipped and capable of delivering...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Unemployment Measures (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: That is exactly what we are doing. This year we will put a focus on entrepreneurship, particularly youth entrepreneurship. Last year, we focused on women starting up their own businesses and we got a strong response to that. One cannot discount people who set up their own business and pretend these are not jobs. These are people working in the economy, creating wealth and opportunity....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Grant Payments (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: In the past five years, Enterprise Ireland paid out almost €520 million to its client companies: €134.02 million in 2009; €167.28 million in 2010; €80.21 million in 2011; €69.57 million in 2012 and €68.84 million in 2013. It has also invested €115 million through the seed and venture capital schemes, development capital scheme and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Grant Payments (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: One can see from the figures that overall State agency spending on Irish-owned companies is approximately €770 million versus €470 million for foreign-owned companies. The Government is spending substantially more on indigenous companies. These figures are for my Department and do not take into account State spending on fisheries, etc. The policy of many Governments over the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Grant Payments (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Irish-owned companies are doing very well in export markets. The previous Government set a target to increase Irish-owned exports by 33% by 2015. We actually achieved that last year and we need to build on it. One has to distinguish between the fact that we support with grants through Enterprise Ireland companies which are export-oriented but do not do the same for domestic retail...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Unemployment Measures (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I recognise that people in the 15 to 34 age group have been seriously affected by job losses in recent years. The latest quarterly national household survey shows that in spite of the creation of an additional 61,000 jobs in the economy in the year to the end of 2013, employment among 15 to 34 year olds decreased by 13,800 year on year. We clearly have a long way to go but in the past year...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Unemployment Measures (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I do not accept the thesis the Deputy has put forward that people who set up their own businesses are in some way inferior in terms of job creation. We want to encourage entrepreneurship. It is a welcome indication that there is a high level of start-up and people setting up as self employed. High levels of company formation are clearly also evident in the figures. I fully admit that...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation Data (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 33 together. The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) for the Fourth Quarter of 2013 was published by the Central Statistics Office on 27 February. The Survey showed that 61,000 extra jobs had been created in the economy year-on-year compared to Quarter 4 of 2012. This was the fifth Quarter in succession where employment has grown on an annual...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Credit Guarantee Scheme Application Numbers (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: As of 31 December 2013, the SME Credit Guarantee Scheme had seventy-two live facilities resulting in over €9.7m being sanctioned through the Scheme by the participating lenders resulting in 409 new jobs being created and 236 jobs being maintained. Data is collated on a regional basis, and the following are the year-end totals for relevant regions. The South West region (Cork and Kerry)...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Rights Issues (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 34 together. The Payment of Wages Act 1991 establishes a range of rights for all employees, one of which is protection against unlawful deductions from wages. Subject to certain conditions set out in that Act, an employer may make a deduction from wages in respect of the cost of goods or services which are necessary to the employment, including, for...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Support Schemes (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Both Enterprise Ireland and the County & City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) are actively providing a range of supports to women in business including financial supports, sponsorship of awards, business events, promoting role models and specialised training and networking programmes. 30 female led businesses received Enterprise Ireland’s (EI) Competitive Feasibility funding in 2013....

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pension Provisions (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 37 together. Access to the Industrial Relations machinery of the State is governed by the definition of “worker” in Section 23 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990, which provides, inter alia, that a “worker” means any person aged 15 years or more who has entered into or works under a contract with an employer. In...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Trade Agreements (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Since TTIP talks started in July 2013, there have been three Rounds of talks, with a further five scheduled during 2014. The fourth Round started this week. Among the topics covered are Trade in Services, Regulatory Coherence, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Intellectual Property Rights, Sustainable Development, Government Procurement, Market Access, Technical Barriers to Trade among other...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation Data (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I am informed the Agency does not collect data on part-time jobs, but groups all “other” jobs (agency, part-time, temporary, short-term contract or employed on contracts of less than nine months) into one category. 2013 was a record year for investment wins and job creation, with over 7,000 net new jobs being created in the Agency’s client companies- of which 2,136 were...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: IDA Site Visits (13 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I am informed by IDA Ireland that since 2011, there has been a total of 98 IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors to County Limerick. Details of the number of site visits conducted in each of the years 2011 to date in 2014 are set out on the tabular statement. IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors include visits to multiple locations where there are...