Results 21,421-21,440 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The agenda has not been full of new restrictions on employment in recent times. It is not that Europe is seeking to impose many new obligations on employers. The thrust in Europe recently has been not to undermine workers' rights but to reduce regulation in areas where it is unnecessary. Obviously areas such as the posting of workers overseas was one where there was a perception, and a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I will take the questions in reverse order. The threshold for the youth guarantee is 25% unemployment in the youth category, so it is only for countries above that level. We are on that level so we are included. We are getting support under that and it was deliberately targeted at the countries that had the biggest problem. We are not the worst. There are some chronic cases, such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: As part of our Presidency we put growth and employment at the top of our agenda and that is reflected in the approach Ireland takes throughout. In the heat of the crisis most of the attention was on ECOFIN. It meets every month and it tends to have many more tools in its armoury in terms of fiscal co-ordination and so on. There is a sense that the employment Ministers need to catch up. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: This is more institutional to ensure there is equality of recognition. Employment Ministers find ways of putting a scoreboard of social indicators as prominently as the well-known scoreboards on fiscal. That has been adopted. A scoreboard is being introduced which includes unemployment rates; youth unemployment rates; the so-called not in education, employment or training, NEET; housing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I will start with the last issue raised by the Deputy. I have no doubt that some of the country-specific recommendations will focus in on training and activation and the policies that are being pursued by Government and will be looking at ways in which we could improve them. The report on apprenticeship has just been published and although it is the area of responsibility of the Minister...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I believe it would be long-term unemployment as well as youth unemployment. Our unemployment is particularly affected by the collapse in construction, where employment went from approximately 300,000 to 100,000. Many of the people who are unemployed in Ireland are people with construction skills, so we have that dimension as well as the youth unemployment dimension. There is a mix of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: There are four core issues for discussion at the forthcoming EPSCO meeting. The first is the message the employment Ministers will send to the European Council on the priorities for the fourth European semester. Second is the adoption of a Council decision making some adjustments to the constitution of the tripartite social summit for growth and employment, which usually meets in advance of...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: It is. The pilot is being introduced at present in Limerick and it will be introduced nationally later in the year. There are efforts in these areas and I believe Members should try to engage in respect of those things they can change and on how they can be changed against the constraints the State faces, rather than pretending one is living in an entirely different environment, in which...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The Government has provided inquiry powers to the Dáil in order that it has the power to inquire into issues. Moreover, on every day that one turns on one's television, one will see an Oireachtas committee holding people to account, actually turning over some of the stones that were left unturned for years and seeing what is crawling and creeping under them. In my book, that...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: One can see the Dáil making a greater impact on issues of public concern. Bills now are being put into the committees before they are framed and set in stone in legislation. I have been around here for years and Bills have come into the House with so much momentum behind them and about which people's minds were so made up that the process of bringing them into the House was...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: I always welcome a bit of passion in the House. Whatever about unparliamentary language which is worth avoiding, I welcome anyone who is passionate about his or her politics. I have listened to the debate and, to be honest, the contributions I have heard from the Opposition have been fanciful. No one has recorded the situation of the economy we inherited when we entered government and the...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Building council houses brings us back to the same issue; we are restricted in the amount we can borrow. That is the reality and what we inherited. We have a debt-GDP ratio of 120% and are not in a position to raise it to invest to meet public needs.

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: We are very restricted in what we can do. This is the environment we have inherited and we must deal with it. We must try to use the money we have in smart ways, which is why we have used the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, in a smart way. The NPRF put out €200 million and leveraged it to secure an €850 million investment for small and medium enterprises. It used the...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Did the Deputy read the latest figures? What he has said is entirely incorrect.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Tribunals of Inquiry Recommendations (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The second report of the Moriarty Tribunal (March 2011) contains one recommendation (62.15) directly relevant to my area of responsibilities - that office holders should be able to elect voluntarily to have their financial affairs audited by the Standards Commission. This affects the Ethics Acts 1995-2001. Following the publication of the Final Report of the Mahon Tribunal in March 2012, I...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Court of Human Rights Judgments (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: In a ruling delivered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on 11 January 2006 in the case of Sørensen and Rasmussen v Denmark, the Court ruled that it is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for a person to be compelled to be a member of a specific trade union in order to be employed in a Danish enterprise. The question at issue was whether it is a...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Redundancy Payments (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: Generally, where an employment has ended and an employee is owed wages, an employee may take a case to the Rights Commissioners Service under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 in order to claim outstanding payments such as arrears of wages and payments in lieu of untaken annual leave or any public holiday benefit outstanding. Under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, an employee who...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: International Agreements (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The EU and Australia formally conduct their trade and economic relations under the EU-Australia Partnership Framework of October 2008. This aims, among other trade related matters, to facilitate trade in industrial and agriculture related products between the EU and Australia by reducing technical barriers, including assessment procedures. This partnership covers dialogue about technical...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Exports Data (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The Government’s Review of the Trade, Tourism and Investment Strategy was launched on 24 February. This review identifies the 27 priority markets that will be the continuing and additional focus of efforts to drive export and investment opportunities. The range of target markets identified will ensure that the necessary resources and policies are devoted to both already well...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: County and City Enterprise Boards Issues (4 Mar 2014)

Richard Bruton: The information requested by the Deputy regarding waiting lists relates to operational matters within the County Enterprise Boards (CEBs) in which I have no function. However, if the Deputy has any concerns about delays being experienced by clients of any particular CEB, I would be happy to bring it to the attention of the Board in question. The Deputy may be aware that as part of the...