Results 3,561-3,580 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I did not see those remarks or the article. I am always loath to comment on an article that I have not read or comments I did not hear. If they are as the Deputy characterises them, I profoundly disagree. One of the strengths of our economy is that it is diversified. We are heavily dependent on about ten companies and about 10% of people who pay over a third of the tax in the country....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am not against it. I do not think it is a bad idea. My principle is when one makes decisions on policy one starts with what one wants to achieve and then decide whether one needs a new agency to do it. I am not saying the Deputy is responsible for this but there is a default position sometimes in Ireland that the solution to any problem is a new agency, task force or maybe a citizens'...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Whereas it is not like that with exports, so-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The FBN has a seat on the Enterprise Forum, which is run by my Department. I engage with the network regularly. Only yesterday its representatives attended our consultation on the enterprise policy and made some very good points on family businesses. On the LEEF, we have tried to keep it quite small. I think there are 20 or 30 organisations that have requested a seat on the LEEF. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It would be a different thing if it had 20 or 30 members.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am a big fan of the 9% VAT rate. It was first introduced by the first Government I had the privilege to serve in, under Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan, and helped to reboot the tourism industry. However, it was only ever to be a temporary measure. I think it is €600 million per year in revenue lost to the State. That is a gross rather than a net figure and I appreciate if one...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The timetable is to have it legislated for and up and running by the end of November. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is doing the legislation, the Revenue Commissioners are going to do the administration and we will backdate it to September, so businesses can bank on that. We do not have state aid clearance yet. Under the state aid rules that are part of the temporary crisis framework it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We do not have projections for company insolvencies but we do think that they will increase. The number of companies that have gone bust and insolvent in the past couple of years has been extremely low. What did happen was that many businesses that would otherwise have failed have managed to survive on Government supports. Since the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Trade visits stopped because of the pandemic, austerity and other reasons. I do not see why trade visits should not resume and we would make sure that the programme is useful from the point of view of Team Ireland. On work permits and visas, there is a new EU directive coming down the line. Realistically, it would take a two-year programme to merge the two processes and get that right,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The availability of low-cost loans is a relatively new innovation. We have had Government-backed low-cost loans for only the past ten or 12 years. They are essentially designed to give businesses access to credit at a lower interest rate and for longer terms than would otherwise be the case. We encourage the banks to do that by sharing some of the risk. That tips the balance and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Senator. I echo what Senator Garvey said on food production. Senator Ahearn referred to apple and pear growers in Munster and it is similar in north County Dublin. It is a great form of agriculture that helps us produce indigenous products and may be more climate friendly than other forms of food production. We support the corporate sustainability due diligence directive in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I agree. That is the plan and is why we have the two grant schemes. It is so people can act on the advice. The steep increase in energy prices will prompt businesses to think about this which did not think about it before. That is the silver lining of this very dark cloud.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That report was discussed at Cabinet yesterday, and was published today by the high level working group on collective bargaining. I thank the chairman, who will be in town for the IRN conference on Thursday, and members of the committee for the work they did. It is a complicated area. They had 11 or 12 meetings, engaged in huge deliberations and produced, which was quite an achievement for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Senator has caught me off guard. I did not realise that was approved by the Council yesterday. I assumed it would go to the Council meeting in October but it must have been done by written procedure. I will have to take a look at that. Our intention is to transpose the directive within the deadline set by the EU. The timeline we have set internally, which I do not necessarily want...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the committee for the work it did on it. It held many hearings and heard all sides. It is a much more complicated area when you hear all sides than even I thought it was at the start. The recommendations that the committee has made are solid and, I hope, will allow us to produce legislation that will have cross-party support. We will probably have to do revised heads because what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Okay. The commitment I have given is to have the revised legislation published before Christmas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I have an open mind on them being legislated for together. We did consider dealing with the issue of remote working as an amendment to the legislation that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is bringing through now. What the Minister is bringing through derives from a European directive on flexible working. It is for parents and carers, whereas remote...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: What I referred to in relation to the south east was for last year. Last year the south east was either the best or the second best performing region in terms of jobs growth. That is from Central Statistics Office, CSO, data. It is a region that is catching up, and a region that is in the catch-up phase. I believe that the Government's investment in infrastructure, in roads, in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It does not sound like it. The Deputy should not be talking down his own town.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Update on Quarters 1 and 2: Discussion (5 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: This has been delegated to the Minister of State, Deputy English, so I might not be fully up to date on it. I may have to revert to the Senator in writing. In the meantime, I shall ask Ms Coogan to comment on it.