Results 23,541-23,560 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Support Services (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) provides estimates of the number of people who are working on a part-time basis involuntarily, which is also known as part-time underemployment. Involuntary part-time work is defined by the OECD as comprising three groups: i) individuals who usually work full-time but who are working part-time because of economic slack; ii) individuals who...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Retail Sector (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 81 together. The Government recognises the importance of the retail sector to the economy. It is employment-intensive and covers every community in the country. Combined with wholesale, the sector employs 258,000 people in Ireland – that is almost 15% of our total workforce. Recognising its importance to the economy, the Action Plan for Jobs...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills Shortages (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs advises the Minister for Education and Skills and me, on behalf of the Government, on current and future skills needs of the economy and on other labour market issues that impact on Ireland’s enterprise and employment growth. In its most recent National Skills Bulletin, which was published on 25 July last, the Expert Group stated that it...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Credit Availability (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: Along with my officials, I am in regular contact with the major banks to discuss the availability of credit to the SME Sector and the rollout of both the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme and the Microfinance Loan Fund.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Protection (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The process regarding the sale of Bank of America’s Irish and UK credit card businesses is ongoing. Negotiations regarding the sale of the MBNA Ireland portfolio have culminated in its recent sale by BOA to Apollo Global Management, a leading global alternative investment manager headquartered in New York. Apollo has more than US$75 billion in assets under management in private...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Microenterprise Loan Fund Applications (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: Microfinance Ireland has been established to deliver the Government’s Microenterprise Loan Fund. Microfinance Ireland opened for business yesterday, Monday, 1 October. Loan applications from businesses and sole traders across all sectors, employing up to ten people who have been refused credit by the banks for loans of up to €25,000, will be accepted and processed. Further...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Cross-Border Co-operation (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: North-South economic co-operation is and will remain a priority for myself and the Government. To this end, there is ongoing dialogue between the relevant Ministers North and South in all areas to promote economic development in the Border region. From my own perspective, I attend meetings in the trade and business development sectoral format of the North-South Ministerial Council which are...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Research Funding (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The European Research Council (ERC) is a European funding body that was set up to support investigator-driven frontier research. It was established to implement the "Ideas Programme" of the Seventh European Union Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Wage-setting Mechanisms (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The requirement for an employer to provide additional compensation to employees for Sunday work has not been removed. The obligation to provide a Sunday Premium is derived from Section 14 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (OWT). In summary, while the OWT Act specifies the means by which an employer should provide a premium for Sunday working, the nature and value of the premium...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Export Statistics (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: Driving export growth is central to our economic recovery and is a key focus of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs. CSO figures show that the strong export performance is continuing. On a seasonally adjusted basis, goods exports in July increased by 6% on the June figure. The statistics also show that the seasonally adjusted trade surplus, at just under €4 billion, increased by...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Commercial Rates Impact (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The levying and collection of commercial rates is a reserved function of the Local Authorities, which come under the policy remit of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan. The Annual Rate of Valuation (ARV) is decided by the elected members of each Local Authority in their annual budget. Conscious of the need to minimise the costs that impact on...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Support Services Provision (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: Job creation is at the top of the Government’s agenda. Supporting new and existing indigenous and foreign-owned businesses, across all regions, is central to our plans for recovery, growth and jobs. The Action Plan for Jobs contains a number of measures which are aimed specifically at the facilitation and incentivisation of national enterprise development from start-ups to growth...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: EU Funding (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Regional Aid Guidelines govern the areas in which Member States may grant regional aid, more commonly known as investment aid. Investment aid is intended to promote the economic development of certain disadvantaged areas within the European Union in order to redress regional disparities. The current Regional Aid Map for 2007-13 was drawn up in accordance with the Commission’s...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Economic Competitiveness (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76 and 255 together. The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) periodically publishes a report on the “Costs of Doing Business in Ireland”. This report benchmarks business costs against a range of Ireland’s key competitor countries in a number of key areas, such as labour costs, property costs, utility costs and business and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Initiatives (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: Collaboration and clustering is a proven strategy that provides potential for economies of scale and access to opportunities that would be outside the capability or scope of a business working on its own. A number of sectors have potential to progress clustering, particularly in the guise of collaborative industry-led networks which seek to identify mutual objectives which if tackled...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Initiatives (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Action Plan for Jobs 2012 identifies a number of key economic sectors which the Government will focus on to promote employment opportunities, including Construction. Among the key actions identified for the Construction sector is the development of a National Strategy to 2015, which will outline the opportunities, challenges and actions needed to realise the potential of the sector....

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Credit Guarantee Scheme Implementation (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputies will be aware, the Oireachtas enacted the Credit Guarantee Act 2012 in July 2012. The Act was commenced and came into operation on 30 August 2012. I have now made, with the consent of my colleagues the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, a necessary scheme under section 5 of the Act. The Scheme, which is Statutory Instrument number 343 of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Trade Mission Numbers (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: In general, proposals for Ministerial led trade missions are developed by Enterprise Ireland on the basis of priority markets and specific sectoral interests of EI client companies. Enterprise Ireland’s proposals for 2013 are currently under consideration by the agency and have not yet been finalised. Once finalised Enterprise Ireland will submit these proposals to me and to the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Unemployment Levels (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Quarterly National Household Survey report published on 19th September records the total number of persons in the labour force in the second quarter of 2012 as 2,096,400. This represents a decrease of 29,500 (-1.4%) over the year and compares with an annual labour force decrease of 26,800 (-1.2%) in the year to Q2 2011. The National Skills Bulletin published by the Expert Group on...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation Issues (2 Oct 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Forfás Annual Employment Survey collates data on numbers employed in enterprise agency supported companies on an annual basis; however no data is compiled in relation to salary scales. Whole of economy data in relation to overall employment by sector and average pay by sector is available from the CSO’s website in the Quarterly National Household Survey and the Earnings and...