Results 201-220 of 3,425 for speaker:Emer Higgins

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Social Enterprise Sector (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Social Enterprises are an important and growing part of Ireland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, creating jobs and stimulating local economic activity, and are recognised as an integral part of Ireland’s broad enterprise policy landscape. Policy responsibility for social enterprises lies with the Department of Rural and Community Development and in July this year my colleague...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Legislative Measures (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Private Members Bill cannot be supported by Government as the proposed changes would fundamentally undermine the very concept of industrial relations, a process essentially involving workers and their employers. My Department’s position was clearly set out in a detailed brief provided to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment following its pubic...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: To support continued growth and business opportunities regionally, Enterprise Ireland (EI) established its representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 2020. Amid the trend towards global diversification of supply chains in the manufacturing and processing industry, Vietnam is fast becoming a surging hub for FDI inflows in recent years. The key objective of this EI office is to...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Employment Permits Section of my Department informs me that to date no Employment Permit application for the person concerned in the details supplied has been received. It should be noted that it is not permissible for a company to employ a non-EEA national without an employment permit. Applications for employment permits are dealt with in date order. The Employment Permits...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Enterprise Ireland's Go Global for Growth programme is aimed at companies that are looking to adapt and evolve their businesses to prepare for global growth. It provides training to senior leadership teams to enable them to work collaboratively on the creation of international growth action plans for their companies. The cost of doubling annual expenditure on Go Global for Growth training...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Government has brought forward a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance support for small businesses. This includes changes to the Local Enterprise Office digitalisation schemes. Digital Start was first introduced in 2022 and is now called Digital for Business. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the eligibility criteria for the Digital for Business consultancy...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Government has brought forward a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance supports for small businesses. This includes changes to the Local Enterprise Office digitalisation schemes that were contained in the SME Package that was announced in May of this year. Digital Start was first introduced in 2022 and is now called Digital for Business. As part of the SME...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Following the recent Review of the Employment Permits Occupation Lists. a number of new quotas were introduced to provide General Employment Permit (GEP) access for certain previously ineligible occupations. The roles of motor/auto mechanics, car mechanics, and HGV/Bus mechanics were among the roles made available for permit under quota. The Employment Permits Section of the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (OWTA), which transposes the EU Working Time Directive into Irish Law, sets out minimum rest and maximum working time for employees as well as holidays and other miscellaneous issues. The Defence Forces are currently excluded from the provisions of the OWTA in its entirety. My Department’s objective is to develop the appropriate legislative...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: My Department developed the Ukraine Enterprise Crisis Scheme (UECS) which provided funding to assist viable but vulnerable companies of all sizes in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors impacted by energy price rises and other direct consequences of the war in Ukraine. Since 2022 the Department has made payments of €9,473,881 to 40 businesses. The Energy...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) play an extremely important role at local level, as part of a supportive ecosystem, providing their services to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country. They provide a signposting service for all government supports available to SMEs and can provide information/referrals to other relevant bodies under...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Redundancy Payments (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Redundancy Payments Act 1967 sets out the formula for calculating the minimum redundancy payment which must be made to eligible employees when they are made redundant by their employer. This is referred to as “statutory redundancy”, and it is a lump sum payment based on an employee’s pay and length of service. An eligible employee is entitled to two weeks' pay for...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages requires Member States with a collective bargaining coverage below 80%, such as Ireland, to publish an action plan to promote collective bargaining. The European Commission Expert Group's Report, released last November, is clear that the content of the action plan is entirely up to Member States, in consultation with the social partners. According to...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Balanced regional development is a priority of mine and of Government. Government has provided substantial funding through a number of enterprise funding schemes to assist regions to support enterprise activity, promote regional growth and create jobs. Since 2017, my Department, through Enterprise Ireland, has approved funding for 79 enterprise focused projects through the Regional Enterprise...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: On the 26thof June 2024, I signed the Employment Regulation Order (ERO) for the Security Sector which came into force on 1stof July 2024. The ERO provided for a wage increase to €14.50 per hour from that date. The full details of the ERO are available here: www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2024/si/319/made/en/ No further legislative changes to the rates of pay and work conditions for...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Job Creation (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Irish labour market remains exceptionally resilient as we move through 2024, with another successive quarter showing a new record for the highest number of people employed in our country. More than half of the jobs created in the past year were outside of Dublin, this is a testament to this Government’s commitment to achieving more balanced regional enterprise development. The...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Job Creation (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: In 2018, the National Planning Framework (NPF) replaced the National Spatial Strategy as the overall spatial planning and development strategy for Ireland. The NPF, together with the National Development Plan (NDP), combine to form Project Ireland 2040, the overarching policy and planning framework for the social, economic and cultural development of Ireland. Government approved the process...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) play an extremely important role at local level, as part of a supportive ecosystem, providing their services to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country. They provide a signposting service for all government supports available to SMEs and can provide information/referrals to other relevant bodies under...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: I encourage anyone who is setting up their own business, to first speak with a business advisor in their Local Enterprise Office (LEO). The LEOs play an extremely important role at local level, as part of a supportive ecosystem, providing their services direct to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country and are best placed to provide...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: When the Sick Leave Act 2022 commenced on 1 January 2023, the initial statutory entitlement was up to 3 days’ sick leave, which increased to 5 days on 1 January 2024. This entitlement could potentially increase to 7 days up to a maximum of 10 days. Section 6(1) of the Act provides that the Minister can, in consultation with the Minister for Social Protection, vary the number of...