Results 4,981-5,000 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme is the largest scheme of its type in the history of the State and makes up to €2 billion in lending available to SMEs. Since its launch in September 2020 it has enabled vital access to loans for the SME sector. As of the 25th November, eight thousand, five hundred and fifty-six loans with a value of over €598 million have been drawn or...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government will continue to support businesses through these challenging times. We recognise the impact that the new measures will have on businesses in Donegal and other counties, especially in sectors such as hospitality, the arts and entertainment and the night-time economy sectors. With this in mind, on Friday the Government announced a package of financial interventions for the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government continues to support businesses through these challenging times and recognises the impact that the new measures will have on sectors such as hospitality, the arts and entertainment and the night-time economy sectors. With this in mind, on Friday we announced a package of financial interventions for the hospitality, events and entertainment sectors. The package includes: - a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Living Wage (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, earlier this year I asked the Low Pay Commission to examine the programme for Government commitment to progress to a living wage over the lifetime of the Government and to make recommendations on the best approach to achieving this commitment. The Low Pay Commission commissioned a team of researchers at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) to conduct...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Schemes (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Regional enterprise development and sustainable local job creation is a key policy priority of mine and this Government. Almost two thirds of new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland client companies in 2020 were in regions outside of Dublin. IDA will target half of all investments equivalent to 400 investments from 2021 to 2024 to regional locations and maintain the same high level of...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government continues to support businesses through these challenging times and recognises the impact that the new measures will have on sectors such as hospitality, the arts and entertainment and the night-time economy sectors. With this in mind, on Friday we announced a package of financial interventions for the hospitality, events and entertainment sectors. The package includes: - a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government continues to support businesses through these challenging times and recognises the impact that the new measures will have on sectors such as hospitality, the arts and entertainment and the night-time economy sectors. On Friday the Government announced a package of financial interventions for the hospitality, events and entertainment sectors. The package includes: - a change to...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: National Minimum Wage (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: On 12 October 2021 the Government accepted the recommendation from the Low Pay Commission to increase the National Minimum Wage to €10.50 per hour from 1 January 2022. This represents a 30-cent increase, or just under 3%, on the current National Minimum Wage of €10.20 per hour and will see at least an estimated 135,000 people get a boost to their wages. As a result of this...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Expenditure (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Accommodation for my Department and its Offices is provided by the Office of Public Works (OPW) in buildings which are either State owned or leased by the OPW on our behalf. The Department and its Offices are located in 11 locations across the country in Dublin, Carlow, Cork, Ennis, Kilkenny and Sligo. The Offices of the Department include: - Companies Registrations Office (inc. the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Research Funding (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) was established in 2018 to encourage collaboration in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my Department with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. DTIF focuses on the ability of Irish enterprises to...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Foreign Direct Investment (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: In July, the Government took the decision to join 140 member states in signing up to the OECD’s International Tax agreement. For the overwhelming majority of enterprises in Ireland, nothing changed. For the 95% of enterprises outside of the scope of the agreement, it is very much business as usual. The small number of larger companies affected by Ireland’s decision to join...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Economic Growth (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The maintenance and improvement of Ireland’s competitiveness position is a key economic priority for Government especially in the uncertain environment of Covid-19, Brexit and rising prices. The fact Ireland is such an open economy means it is important that we remain competitive when compared to peers as this will help ensure continued and sustainable economic growth over the coming...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Economic Growth (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption across all sectors of the economy and all regions of the country. However, despite this disruption, the Irish economy has shown remarkable resilience. Using the latest quarterly national accounts data from the CSO, the economy grew by approximately 14.5% in GDP terms in the first nine months of 2021 compared with the equivalent nine...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Economic Growth (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Irish economy has shown remarkable resilience since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused unprecedented disruption across all sectors of the economy and all regions of the country. Many businesses are still hurting, and will be impacted by the most recent restrictions, but many businesses are also performing very well. Economic growth in 2020 was predominantly driven by...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Foreign Direct Investment (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Investors’ confidence in Ireland remains strong as evidenced by the flow of investment projects over recent months and years. In 2020, Ireland increased its market share of FDI into Europe in the face of global declines in FDI. In July 2021, IDA Ireland reported significant investment growth in the first half of 2021, noting that FDI employment creation plans were nearing 2019 levels....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Economic Policy (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: As a small, open economy, Ireland is highly integrated into many global supply chains, with Irish firms competing on a world stage. The fact we are such an open economy means it is important that the Irish economy is competitive when compared to all economies not just a small number. Ensuring that the economy remains competitive when compared to peers will help ensure continued and...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Services Sector (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Official data on economy-wide employment is taken from the Central Statistic Office's (CSO) Labour Force Survey, which is updated quarterly. The CSO does not publish data on the gross job gains or losses in each sector but only the total number employed. Based on the data published in the CSO's Labour Force Survey, my officials tell me that employment in the services sector grew from...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (9 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I refer the deputy to my responses to this question on 2nd November 2021 and 15th September 2021, which are reproduced below. In the Government's Diaspora Strategy, which was launched in late 2020, a number of actions have been set out to strengthen our connections with diaspora communities and to harness the contribution from the diaspora to support economic recovery. The Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Research Funding (8 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government established the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) in 2018 as one of four National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027 Funds under Project Ireland 2040. It is aimed at encouraging collaboration and innovation in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Research Funding (8 Dec 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) was established in 2018 to encourage collaboration in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my Department with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. DTIF focuses on the ability of Irish enterprises to drive...