Results 23,221-23,240 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Expenditure (13 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: Officials in my Department are currently compiling the information sought by the Deputy. As our current financial system was changed in 2003 it does not hold information prior to 2004, therefore extracting the equivalent accurate data required for 2001-2003 may prove to be very complex and costly. Once the available information is collated I will arrange for it to be forwarded to the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permits (13 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 81 to 83, inclusive, together. The Employment Permits Acts 2003 to 2006 make it a criminal offence to employ a foreign national without an employment permit, or for a foreign national to work without an employment permit. Section 2(4) of the 2003 Act places an onus on the employer to carry out reasonably thorough checks in order to be satisfied that a...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Appointments to State Boards (12 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: In line with Government Policy, the process for making appointments to State Boards has, since mid-2011, been administered through the Public Appointments Service (PAS). PAS publicly invites Expressions of Interest from all interested parties, including those of the type referred to in the question. These applications are not categorised by reference to the occupational background of the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Contracts (12 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: In the time available since this Question was tabled, my Department has not been able to collect information in relation to the services listed by the Deputy. Once the available information is collated, I will arrange for it to be forwarded to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Staff Remuneration (12 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: Sanction was sought from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) by my Department on 27th February 2012 to enhance staff deployment to assist with EU presidency preparations. Sanction was given to my Department on 24th July 2012 for temporary promotions (as set out in tabular format below) from within my Department’s existing resources to assist my Department’s...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Retail Sector (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The law on trading hours of shops is the Shops (Hours of Trading) Act 1938. This Act was introduced for the purpose of controlling competition in the retail sector through the making of regulations which controlled the closing time for shops in specific areas and for specific sectors. A Statutory Instrument was made in 1938 (S.I. No. 188 of 1938) which exempts the whole country from any...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Initiatives (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Government is tackling unemployment generally through the twin strategies of the Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work. The aim of the Action Pan for Jobs is to support the creation of 100,000 net new jobs by 2016, while the objective of Pathways to Work is to ensure that as many of those jobs as possible go to those who are currently unemployed. The Government’s approach is...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: National Internship Scheme (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The JobBridge Scheme is administered by the Department of Social Protection. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland have no role or function in the administration of the Scheme and are therefore, not aware if any of their respective client companies are participants in the Scheme. All queries regarding JobBridge should be addressed to the Department of Social Protection. In this regard, and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permits (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The High Court Judgement of 31st August raised serious issues in relation to employees who have unwittingly entered into illegal contracts of employment by virtue of not having an employment permit. When I received the judgement, I quickly stated my aim was to ensure that an employer should not benefit from using an illegal contract of employment where he or she was a willing party to its...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Building Regulations (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government use NSAI Agrément as a mechanism to show compliance with the Building Regulations. NSAI Agrément Certification is designed specifically for new building materials, products and processes that do not yet have a long history of use and for which published national standards do not yet exist. The Certification...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permit Legislation (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: My Department is currently preparing new legislation, the purpose of which will be to consolidate and streamline the Employment Permits Act 2003 and the Employment Permits Act 2006. The legislation will: update provisions for the employment permits schemes in line with policy and economic developments since 2007; provide the flexibility to deal with changing labour market, work patterns and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: National Lottery Funding (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has no decision making role in relation to the distribution of National Lottery funding to community based projects. Nor indeed do the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs). The funding available from the CEBs is aimed towards providing assistance to commercially viable micro-enterprises in the start-up and expansion phases with priority...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Public Services (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I take it that the Deputy is referring to the Public Service Reform programme agreed by Government in November 2011. Last July the Government agreed a range of actions aimed at achieving a focused and integrated approach to external service delivery of non-core processes with the objective of reducing costs and focusing staff on priority areas. As part of this approach, the Government...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU Directives (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act was enacted on 16th May, 2012. I published a national information notice in December, 2011 in relation to the legislation and in particular in relation to the retrospective provision in the Act. During the course of the legislative process, officials in my Department met with various stakeholders whose members would be affected by...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Clothing Imports (11 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The competence for the EU's common commercial policy, covering trade in goods and services as well as investment, lies with the European Union. I am not aware of any plans by the EU Commission to propose a ban on the importation into the EU of sand blasted denim.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permits (6 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: The High Court Judgement of 31st August raised serious issues in relation to employees who have unwittingly entered into illegal contracts of employment by virtue of not having an employment permit. When I received the judgement, I quickly stated my aim was to ensure that an employer should not benefit from using an illegal contract of employment where he or she was a willing party to its...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Industrial Development (5 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 33 to 35, inclusive, together. Data on grants approved for companies is confidential information between IDA Ireland and its clients. However, details of grants actually paid to the company are given in the Appendix. Precise employment data in IDA Ireland client companies is also confidential; however, I can confirm that the approximate average numbers...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: Yes. In other words, that one would not open up markets in countries with which one does not have a reciprocal arrangement. This would relate more to third countries bidding for EU procurement contracts, from which countries without free trade agreements with Europe are excluded. Some countries would like to have that type of quid pro quo and others would rather not impose these types of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I think the question was about the threshold for advertising contracts.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Forthcoming Competitiveness Council: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (4 Dec 2012)

Richard Bruton: I will have to come back to the committee on that issue. I will also have to come back to the committee on the question of the exact scope of social obligations allowable in a contract. This relates to objective things such as unemployment and cannot be designed to favour a high-cost provider over a low-cost provider. This matter comes under the responsibility of the Department of Public...