Results 21,701-21,720 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department and its Agencies offer a wide range of supports to allow businesses to prepare for Brexit. My commitment to ensuring businesses are as well prepared as possible is evidenced by the focus I placed on Brexit as part of my allocations under Budget 2019, including through Enterprise Ireland, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, IDA Ireland and InterTrade Ireland and the advisory...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Brexit is undoubtedly the most significant challenge facing Irish enterprise in over 50 years. With less than 6 months to go, I was determined to deliver a budget with Brexit at its core, building on the many measures we have already introduced, and responding to the evolving needs of business. The agencies under my remit have an extensive range of supports available to enable companies to...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Regional Development Initiatives (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Since becoming Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I have made regional development my top priority. Indeed, enterprise development and job creation in the regions of Ireland is a key policy priority of this Government. The Midlands has seen good progress under the Regional Action Plan for Jobs, with employment in the region increasing by 14% from Q1 2015 to Q2 2018. There...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills Shortages (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department works in collaboration with the Department of Education and Skills to ensure that the education and training system is producing the right talent pool to ensure the success of enterprise in Ireland. In particular, my Department provides research and secretarial support to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). The EGFSN plays a key role in identifying and advising...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Research and Development Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Innovation 2020 contains a commitment to support excellent research across the full continuum from basic research to the creation and development of research-informed innovative products, processes and services. Government investment in R&D includes funding for programmes that encompass all disciplines and all types of research. It should be noted that public funding for research is...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Support Schemes (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department and I are fully committed to ensuring a “fit for purpose” ecosystem of supports for entrepreneurs. In 2014, the Government launched the National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland, a five-year plan to double the jobs impact of start-ups on our economy. To further underpin this commitment, my Department, in conjunction with the OECD earlier this...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: IDA Ireland (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: I understand that there are 18 IDA client companies located in County Wexford employing a total of 2,948 people there. I am pleased that these companies have exhibited strong growth in recent years, as evidenced by the 10% increase in IDA supported employment in the County from 2016 to 2017. Total employment in overseas companies in the South-East now stands at 14,785 people across 75...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: IDA Ireland Data (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: In the past ten years there have been three new name investments in County Donegal out of a total of 18 investments in the County for that period. It is important to emphasise in this context, however, that foreign direct investment (FDI) performance is not necessarily reflected in new name investments, as almost 70% of all new FDI in Ireland comes from existing IDA client companies already...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Foreign Direct Investment (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Ireland continues to perform very strongly in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It is a significant achievement that there are now over 210,000 people employed in IDA Ireland client companies here. The fact that the IDA has surpassed its overall five-year target of 209,000 within three years is further evidence of Ireland’s success in growing both the level of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Economic Policy (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department supports co-operatives in the same way we support other enterprises. The co-operative model is one of a number of legal options that are available to those considering establishing themselves in business and the different models have their own distinct characteristics. It is of course up to each individual operation to choose the model that best suits the nature of the business...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement Funding (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: The Government agreed in October 2017 to establish the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as an agency. The purpose was to give it greater autonomy over its resources and enhance its capacity to meet the increasing challenge of investigating suspected corporate offences. That decision was one of the Government’s package of “Measures to Enhance Ireland’s...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills Shortages (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department works in collaboration with the Department of Education and Skills to ensure that the education and training system is producing the right talent pool to ensure the success of enterprise in Ireland. In particular, my Department provides research and secretarial support to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). The EGFSN plays a key role in identifying and advising...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: The 21st September 2018 was the first anniversary of provisional application of the EU – Canada Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). It is important to have CETA enter into force provisionally so that Irish companies may take advantage of the Agreement, which removes customs duties, substantially improves access to the Canadian public procurement market, opens up new sectors...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Issues (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department and its Agencies provide extensive supports to ensure that businesses are prepared for Brexit. These supports aim to assist businesses in identifying key risk areas and the practical preparatory actions to be taken over the coming months. The level of uptake of these supports shows that businesses are aware of the assistance on offer and are engaging with various initiatives and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: The Brexit Loan Scheme provides affordable working capital to eligible businesses with up to 499 employees that are or will be impacted by Brexit and meet the scheme criteria. The €23 million exchequer funding (€14 million from my Department and €9 million from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) has been leveraged to provide a fund of up to €300...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Small and Medium Enterprises Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Supporting our small and medium sized enterprises is a cornerstone policy for the Government and my Department. SMEs are vital to Ireland’s continuing recovery and all active enterprises in the State remain critically important. The Government recognises that rising insurance costs for enterprise are an issue. For this reason, the Minister for Finance established the Cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permits Applications (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: As the economy improves and we approach full employment my Department has experienced a high volume of employment permit applications in recent months which has led to some delays in processing applications. At the end of September 2018, the total number of employment permit applications accepted was 12,530, a 29% increase over the same period in 2017. During this period, the total number of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Competition Law (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: The current legal position is that civil fines are not provided for in Irish law for anti-competitive practices. My Department obtained advice on the issue of civil fines from the Office of the Attorney General to the effect that civil fines are not provided for in Irish law for anti-competitive practices having regard to Article 38.1 of the Constitution which provides that no person shall...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: Since becoming Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I have made jobs and enterprise in the regions my top priority. The Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative is a central pillar of the Government’s ambition to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, 135,000 of which are outside of Dublin. A key objective of each of the 8 regional plans, including the Border region, is to have...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Supports (18 Oct 2018)

Heather Humphreys: My Department and its agencies are central to the Government effort to prepare Irish SMEs and our wider business ecosystem for Brexit. The agencies under my remit have an extensive range of supports available to enable companies to both consolidate market share and continue to pursue new opportunities and to grow their market presence. In Budget 2019 an extra €8 million has been...