Results 21,381-21,400 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Support Services Provision (5 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I am aware of the initiative launched by my colleague Minister Brian Hayes on November 29, 2013. Local initiatives can play a central role in alleviating unemployment and supporting entrepreneurship. This voluntary initiative is a prime example of how communities can work together to support business development and job creation. The regionally based Enterprise Ireland team are aware of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Joint Labour Committees Agreements (5 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: On 28 January last, I signed Orders to give effect to recommendations of the Labour Court Review of the ten existing Joint Labour Committees, which I had published in October 2013. The Orders provide for: - The abolition of 2 Joint Labour Committees: - Dublin Hotels - Law Clerks - Amendments to the existing Establishment Orders in respect of: - Contract Cleaning - Hairdressing -...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Tourism Employment (5 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The economic downturn had an adverse effect on the Hospitality sector with many establishments forced to close or scale back and implement a range of cost cutting measures. In 2011, as part of the Jobs Initiative the Government reduced the VAT rate to 9% for those in the Tourism and Hospitality sectors to boost economic growth and cost competitiveness. The combined effects of this initiative...

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.

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: 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: We have a location in Austin, Texas, and hopefully there will be an Ireland House there. As I noted in the Dáil earlier, some policies were not an option for us. People argued that austerity was a disaster and that we should have been spending money but given that we were already spending 50% more than we were taking in, we did not have the option of throwing a wall of money at...