Results 4,901-4,920 of 6,307 for speaker:Gerald Nash

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (17 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: I certainly support wage rises in profitable companies and where circumstances allow. To answer the Deputy's question concisely about where I stand on the national minimum wage, clearly, we are in the process of setting up the low pay commission. I am in favour of ensuring changes to the national minimum wage on a progressive basis where circumstances allow. While clearly we are creating...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Enterprise Support Services Provision (17 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: As Deputy Calleary knows, the Minister, Deputy Bruton, commissioned a major report on the strategy for the manufacturing sector, which was published in April 2013. The strategy identifies an additional 20,000 jobs that can be created in manufacturing by 2016 and proposes key actions across a range of areas, including access to new funding, management training and support, cost reduction, the...

Palestine: Motion [Private Members] (9 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: I agree with the proposers of this motion - and, I think, with all balanced and informed opinion - that the status quois untenable and dangerous. We are also agreed that what is needed is an early resumption of negotiations, with clear parameters and with a specific timetable. I believe in a free, sovereign, independent and democratic Palestine living peacefully side by side with Israel....

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: Bertie.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: Commission a report. You would want a strong shelf for your reports.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: You did not build a single house.

Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (3 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this issue. The confirmation by Vendata that Lisheen Mine is progressing its phased wind-down of operations at the lead and zinc mines outside Thurles, in accordance with plans agreed with employees in 2009, is of course to be regretted. I appreciate that the closure, although planned well in advance and not unexpected, will have a devastating impact on the...

Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (3 Dec 2014)

Gerald Nash: I appreciate Deputy Lowry's remarks and reiterate the Government's commitment to working with the task force, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and other relevant agencies to ensure we can continue to attract employment and industry to the area. The aim is to address the issues that will emerge after the closure of the Lisheen site. It is an attractive site and I have learned more about it in...

Other Questions: Ministerial Appointments (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I thank the Deputy for the question. The Construction Contracts Act 2013 seeks to ensure prompt payment practices throughout the construction industry which, as we are all aware, has suffered markedly throughout the economic downturn. It is intended that the legislation will provide easier access to payment for contractors who have carried out work, thus ensuring that those contractors who...

Other Questions: Ministerial Appointments (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I recently took on responsibility for this legislation and to set up the infrastructure around it. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was responsible for it previously but it was no longer appropriate for that Department to be responsible for it. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, was particularly anxious that this process would be expedited and I...

Other Questions: Retail Sector (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: In regard to Waterford, I am looking forward to visiting the city and county earlier in the New Year with my colleague, Deputy Ciara Conway. During my visits to all areas across the country I will be meeting with retailers. I have a particular interest in trying to support the retail sector given the experience it has had over the past few years. Tomorrow, I will be visiting Carlow and...

Other Questions: Retail Sector (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: The issue of restructuring of debt is one I raise continually with senior banking officials when I have the opportunity to meet with them. As I understand it, Bank of Ireland has restructured 90% of the debt over-hangs to which the Deputy referred, which are obviously not exclusively in the retail sector but across the SME sector. Considerable further work needs to be done. We have...

Other Questions: Retail Sector (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I can assure the Deputy there is a sense of urgency about the position of the retail sector at present and in terms of addressing the serious issues around employment and so on in the sector. As part of this year’s Action Plan for Jobs, we have established the Retail Consultation Forum under the aegis of my Department to provide a platform for a structured engagement between the...

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: To refer back to Deputy Coppinger's question, the total gross Exchequer expenditure by the Department in 2013 was €791.9 million, and 57% of this represented total capital expenditure via agencies under the Department's remit. Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and many other agencies under the aegis of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation have done remarkable work in recent...

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I thought you were on the left. I thought you were interested in job creation.

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I find it quite depressing that somebody who claims to be of the left seems to be so anti-jobs and anti-employment. I do not inhabit the world in which Deputy Coppinger lives. I believe our State agencies should be supported in creating jobs.

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: Deputy Coppinger would do a very good job if she returned to the thousands of her constituents who work in the foreign direct investment sector and explained to them she is not in favour of State support for Enterprise Ireland and the IDA, which support many of the jobs those constituents have and in which they work extremely hard.

Other Questions: Action Plan for Jobs (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: The Action Plan for Jobs is a multi-annual strategy initiated in 2012 to ensure a cross-Government approach to optimising the environment for enterprise, such that a net additional 100,000 jobs will be created by 2016. Good progress is being made on the implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014. Ireland's ranking in terms of competitiveness and ease of doing business continues to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: It is a matter in which I am interested personally apart from the fact that I am the Minister of State with responsibility for it. I understand that the issues involved in the dispute in question have been referred to the Labour Court. From the industrial relations point of view, it is important that the court can make determinations on the relevant questions of employment law. I have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Industrial Relations (25 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: As the Deputy is aware, I recently published the heads of the proposed industrial relations (amendment) Bill 2014. The heads of the Bill are available and are currently the subject of pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I will set out the two main purposes of the Bill. First, it will provide for the reintroduction of a mechanism for the...