Results 261-280 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: The best way of answering that is to say that this legislation provides for a seasonal permit. It does not grant it to any sector individually. We have the legislation and we have regulations. As with every other operation of the permits, if any particular sector is looking for access to permits, we go through exactly what Deputy Nash said about the home care sector. We analyse it,...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: If it eases the Deputy's concerns, we have engaged with the WRC specifically on the seasonal employment permits and how we can strengthen things to enable it to police this and manage it. The Deputy is assuming this will be abused. I have to defend the majority of employers and say this will not be abused and they will honour the terms and conditions.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: Can I finish the point? The Deputy wants to have a law that penalises all the good employers. We want to allow for seasonal permits and track and monitor that to make sure everyone honours that and that protections are in place to try to prevent any move away from proper terms and conditions or poor treatment of people. Of course we will do that. We would do that for anyone who works in...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I have tried to respond to the committee's concerns during pre-legislative scrutiny and the Second Stage debate. The committee has identified a major concern here. I acknowledge that in any employment, seasonal or non-seasonal, we have to have protections in place for employees. That is what we do. The committee members are the ones highlighting this as a concern so we are going beyond...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: To be very clear, the mechanisms are in place but we must make sure there is guidance on accessing them. We dealt with amendments in this regard earlier. It is important there is a roadmap to getting the assistance. I have several comments to make on this. The freedom to choose is key, as are the protections that are available. On foot of discussions with the committee and others, we are...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: It is also healthcare assistants as well as doctors and nurses. There could be several thousand a year. During one year of Covid there were 4,500 medical-related permits. I want to put that information out there. The legislation before us will allow for the automatic indexation of wages. There are particular sectors that traditionally obtain permits. We look at them and if we see in...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: At present a spouse or partner is entitled to apply for a general employment permit. The position is that our permits are generally job specific. The issue of family reunification was raised on Second Stage. We are speaking to the Department of Justice about this from an employment point of view. We can update the committee on it on Report Stage.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: They generally apply for a general employment permit.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: Deputy Stanton wants it to be the same as the critical skills permit.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I will take a look at this prior to Report Stage.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I will take a look at this issue for Report Stage. We will discuss later the ability to use regulations to adapt quickly to certain scenarios and change policy quickly through regulations. I will certainty take a look at this for Report Stage.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: The amendment proposes to delete section 4, which will remove the legislative basis for the Minister to make regulations on operational matters to enable the smooth functioning of the permit system and the facility required by the 2018 review with regard to migration policy to ensure the system remains fit for purpose. This was an ask in the review of 2018. The Minister would no longer have...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: The Deputy has made a fair point. I reaffirm that if such a scenario were to arise and the committee was unhappy with what was proposed in regulations, it would have the right to rescind them, as Deputies would when they came before the Dáil. That provision exists. The advice given when developing legislation is that regulations make the operation of schemes more flexible and, where...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I move amendment No. 8: In page 19, line 17, after“(4)”to insert “and section 25(1)”.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: It is the latter. It is on behalf of the client company. We oppose the Deputy's suggestion to amend the section. We regard the development agencies, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, as world leading organisations that do great work on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. They have significant expertise in this area. The Government trusts them to deliver on...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I recognise the Deputy's willingness to engage on this matter. We are concerned about what would happen if we accepted the amendment. We are trying to discourage poor applications and have applications of a sloppy standard, which happens more often that it should. We are trying to discourage that. We try to triage in certain key areas and we would inform somebody if there is an obvious...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: Yes, I do.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I move amendment No. 10: In page 25, line 38, after “21,” to insert “25,”.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I move amendment No. 11: In page 26, line 1, to delete “An” and substitute “Subject to section 25, an”.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2022)

Damien English: I move amendment No. 12: In page 26, line 21, after “(8)” to insert “and section 25”.