Results 23,741-23,760 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Work Permits: Work Permits (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: Employment Permit structures and procedures have been designed and maintained to protect the Irish labour market while ensuring that key specific skills are available that will enable the Irish economy to expand and develop. Within this context Ireland still remains a very open and welcoming country for non-Irish nationals in our Labour Force. Quarter 1 2012 labour market statistics show...

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: The information requested by the Deputy is set out in tabular form below. Agency / Office of Department Powers to Enter and Search Premises?(Yes / No) Is a Search Warrant Required?(Yes / No) National Standards Authority of Ireland Power to enter No Competition Authority Yes Yes National Consumer Agency Yes An authorised officer may enter a business premises at all reasonable times...

Written Answers — Enterprise Support Services: Enterprise Support Services (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: The rate at which the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) can provide feasibility grants to micro-enterprises is determined in the first instance by the location of the business entity i.e. whether the applicant is in the BMW region (60% rate applies) or the S&E region (50% rate applies). The different rates that apply between the two regions have been set down by the European Commission...

Written Answers — Work Permits: Work Permits (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: It is current Government policy to issue new employment permits only in respect of: · highly skilled, highly paid positions or; · non-EEA nationals who are already legally resident in the State on valid employment permits or; · positions requiring specialist or scarce skills, expertise or qualifications which cannot be filled elsewise. Furthermore permits are issued in respect of...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: Health and Safety Authority (HSA) Mr John Newham, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation was appointed to the Board of the Health and Safety Authority on the 10th April 2012. This appointment was a direct replacement for a former Principal Officer in the Department who retired from the Civil Service in February 2012. Shannon Development Mr Stephen Curran, Department of Jobs,...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I can advise the Deputy that the only new appointment to the position of Chairperson to any Agency under my Department since March 2011 has been to the Competition Authority. The Chairperson, Ms Isolde Goggin is scheduled to attend before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on 24 July 2012.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I appointed two former public servants to act as Civilian Drivers at my Department. The following retirees were also rehired by my Department on a part-time basis in recent years: · Mr John Walsh - A former Assistant Secretary in this Department is serving on the NERA Advisory Board. The cost to the Exchequer for 2011 was €514.58. · Ms. Julie O'Neill - A former Secretary General at...

Job Creation (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputy Conway for raising this issue. She is correct that the IDA had a record year last year, with 13,000 jobs and a net expansion of 6,000 jobs. It was the highest job creation rate in a decade and the lowest rate of job loss in a decade, and that pattern is being continued into the first half of this year. The Deputy is also right in saying that the south east is an area that has...

Job Creation (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I take the point. I will ask for that to be done in that we will examine the reason companies ultimately choose to locate elsewhere. Very often it is not Waterford competing with Limerick. It is Ireland, or Waterford, if it is the preferred location, competing with Scotland.

Job Creation (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: The issues are to do with what many of these companies are now looking for, namely, ICT skills and language skills. There may not be the same depth of skill base in Waterford compared with some of the competing locations. In other areas we have Genzyme, on the pharmaceutical side, and we use established companies as the main reference sale. It is people who have come here and been...

Seanad: Microenterprise Loan Fund Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I thank Senators for their support for this Bill. Senator Barrett is correct that, sadly, we saw the banks take a wrong turning. A couple of years ago, Ireland was the easiest place in which to get a loan and the refusal rate was a mere 2%. This was a symptom of the problem. Banks had lost the run of themselves by issuing money but, sadly, they had demolished their capacity to lend other...

County Enterprise Boards (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: We have established an implementation group which has had a number of meetings already. Those people are putting together a plan for the implementation which will include timelines, and I expect to have very substantial progress made by the end of the year. There is a legislative requirement which must come before the House, and I do not expect to have that before the start of next year....

County Enterprise Boards (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: There is now certainty about the future of county enterprise boards, and it will be to deliver a one-stop shop within local authorities as part of the enterprise family. They will be answerable, through a service level agreement, to Enterprise Ireland, which is establishing a centre of excellence for the support of small business. We have a clear structure that will give people certainty....

County Enterprise Boards (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: Small companies with potential would enter the export market through Enterprise Ireland. It has 31 offices overseas and has expertise and a programme to support exports. It has also put in place a first-time exporters' division.

County Enterprise Boards (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: Exactly. For a small business, there will not be a ceiling that cannot be breached. If a company has export potential and there are only two people involved, they will be able to access the system through Enterprise Ireland. To be clear, I have not said it will process the microfinance loans, and there will still be a "microfinance Ireland", as it were, that will make decisions on...

Industrial Development (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: The total costs associated with administering the IDA's 18 overseas offices in 2011 was €10.5 million. These offices are located in New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Irvine and Mountain View in California, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore, Australia, Russia and Brazil. It is not possible to give a breakdown of the cost of each individual...

Industrial Development (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I would like to take issue with the suggestion that foreign enterprise is some sort of an enclave. Foreign enterprise employs 150,000 people and the agencies supporting indigenous companies employ approximately the same number of people. The global spend of both sectors in the Irish economy is about equal. Foreign-owned export-oriented companies spend as much in the Irish economy as...

Industrial Development (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: That is a different issue. The Deputy suggested it was an enclave. We know that output per person in foreign-owned companies is much higher than output per person in domestic companies. That is the case for all sorts of reasons, such as the sectors involved. The pharmaceutical and biopharma areas, for example, have very low labour contents by and large, and that is true wherever they are...

Written Answers — Sick Pay Scheme: Sick Pay Scheme (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: I have outlined my position on this matter in previous replies given to this House – most recently in reply to Question No. 9 (Ref. 11539/12) of 29 February last from Deputy Dara Calleary. As I indicated at that time, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, initiated a consultation process earlier this year on the feasibility and implications of introducing a statutory...

Written Answers — Media Mergers: Media Mergers (12 Jul 2012)

Richard Bruton: The media mergers group reported in June 2008 and made recommendations for improvement in the legal framework for considering media mergers. Although not recommended by this group, the previous Minister agreed in principle to allocating responsibility for consideration of the public interest in media mergers to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in June 2010, but...