Results 48,901-48,920 of 51,072 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Job Losses. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I too was very concerned to hear that Irish Pride Bakeries Limited in Kanturk had announced that it was closing with the loss of 76 full-time and 20 part-time jobs. I am conscious of the effect these job losses will have on the workers involved and their families, as well as the community in the surrounding area. This is very disappointing news for...

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: That is fantastic progress.

Proposed Legislation. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: The legislative and regulatory regime that applied to the DCC-Fyffes case was Part V of the Companies Act 1990. Part V has been largely repealed with the introduction of a new more robust and more wide-ranging regime which came into effect on 6 July 2005. This new regime consists of the Market Abuse (Directive 2003/6/EC) Regulations 2005 and Part 4 of the Investment Funds, Companies and...

Proposed Legislation. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: Fundamentally, a new regulatory regime is operational to cover all these areas and it will be overseen by a new competent authority, the Financial Regulator. I am aware of the commentary on the DCC-Fyffes case, including that of Ms Justice Laffoy in her judgment, and we are examining the issues raised. I have referred a number of them to the company law review group with a view to...

Proposed Legislation. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: No, I do not agree with the Deputy. I have referred the case to the company law review group to seek advice on specific points raised in the judgment. Over recent years, EU legislation has been adopted in all the areas mentioned, a number of which were originally covered by my Department. One of the features of the radically new and robust legislation is that member states are no longer...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 115 together. The labour inspectorate of my Department is responsible for monitoring certain employment conditions for all categories of workers, including immigrant workers. The inspectorate operates without differentiation with regard to worker nationality as statutory employment rights and protections apply to immigrant workers in exactly the same...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: Any abuse of domestic workers is unacceptable and deserves to be condemned on all sides of the House. My Department no longer generally issues work permits for domestic workers, including carers or minders and nannies, except in exceptional and limited circumstances where the Department may have an assurance that workers have supports in place. As I outlined in my initial reply, the bottom...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: These are relevant in the context of inspectors entering private dwellings in pursuance of employment rights compliance checking and enforcement. Article 40.5 of the Constitution provides that the dwelling of every citizen is inviolable and shall not be forcibly entered save in accordance with law. Article 43 of the Constitution provides as follows: The State acknowledges that man, in virtue...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: If the Deputy knows it, he will understand why there is a time lag between September and now.

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy made a big song and dance about being told something by the Minister of State in September. I am pointing out the very real difficulties that occur. We would like to provide a constitutional amendment. We are in discussions with the social partners.

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: As the Deputy will be aware, there are other issues in that some of the social partners put forward the idea that recruiting agencies or employment agencies should be designated as representing employers. I would have difficulty with this proposal because it is not logical. I do not think they could represent individuals who would employ people in this context. We have consulted the Labour...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: We will meet the migrant action group at some stage to discuss the matters they raised in the context of the Work Permits Bill which is currently going through the House. Part of the legislation relates to the positioning of key information on work permits in terms of wages, conditions of employment and so on which seeks to give added protection to workers, including issuing work permits to...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: Through multilingual leaflets and a lo-call phone service whereby people from different countries can ring up and get a response in their own language on their rights and entitlements, what is available in terms of employment opportunities and so on. The Know Before You Go campaign aims to talk to people before they arrive in Ireland about their entitlements and so on. I recently launched...

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: Of course we will meet with the group suggested by Deputy Howlin. I will come back to him on that. Second, I will organise for FÁS to brief the Deputies in the House on that campaign and the scale of it. The campaign is concentrating on the high volume countries — Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: We do not issue many work permits for this type of work. There may be a degree of unregulated employment in this area which would be illegal. If non-EU persons are working here without work permits that would contravene the law but it also makes it more difficult in terms of enforcement personnel dealing with the issue.

Job Protection. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: I hope and trust we can reach an agreed solution between Government and the social partners on a broad approach to the enforcement of, and compliance with, our labour law. All of these issues are being actively discussed.

Wage Levels. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: It is very difficult to provide evidence regarding the impact on wage levels of the increase in new European accession states' nationals working here. This is because it is not possible to conclusively isolate this impact from that of the various other factors that affect wage levels. It is true that a significant number of EU-10 nationals have joined our labour force since accession in May...

Wage Levels. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: We have fairly robust legislation, above and beyond the minimum wage, in terms of sectoral wage agreements.

Wage Levels. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: They exist and those areas are being explored in the context of the current talks. I am not saying what is our position on that but we are exploring the whole registered employment agreements, REAs, scenario. They are well developed in the construction sector and have been for quite some time. We have engaged in sectoral agreements. I have also asked FÁS to study the impact of economic...

Wage Levels. (7 Feb 2006)

Micheál Martin: I certainly will do that. Overall, the evidence is not that there is a wholesale dramatic decline in wage levels.