Results 5,741-5,760 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I have two things to say about that. It has never been a requirement for people to be vaccinated when they go to work. Throughout the pandemic, we have had teachers in front of the classroom, retail workers in shops where the customers are mostly not vaccinated, transport workers driving buses and healthcare workers going into relatively risky scenarios before they were vaccinated so it has...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure there is any legal standard on ventilation for most or any workplaces. It might be the case in a few but to my knowledge, it is not a legal standard requirement for any particular workplace. For the first time, we included a chapter on ventilation advising people what to do to make sure there is good ventilation and fresh air, which helps to reduce the risk of transmission, in...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Ventilation is important, masks are important, sanitisation is important and cleaning protocols are important. However, on none of these things do we have a legal standard. To be honest, I do not know enough about the science of masks, ventilation or sanitisation to say what the legal standard should be. What we have is guidance and that guidance is applied and inspected. The inspectors...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I may have to come back to the Deputy about this in more detail. I only have the guidelines in front of me. There is a risk assessment on page 37 and page 38 of the document on what is done on ventilation and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers ventilation guidance provides additional information. It may be necessary to retain the services of a ventilation engineer to...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: That is done based on the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. The commission has examined this on several occasions and has removed some of the sub-minimum rates in recent years. The theory or argument behind it is that having sub-minimum or lower rates ensures that people who have no experience or who have never worked before can have the opportunity to get employment. That is the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am aware of the issue, the seriousness of it and the impact it could have on the food industry and people who work there. It does fall more under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as the Deputy will understand, than under my Department. Anyway, it is important that I am across it too. We are yet to see the full outworking of Brexit, unfortunately, because Britain is...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure we will find all these vets but this has come up in discussions around the Cabinet table and the sub-committee. I know the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is very much aware of it and has plans.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: As members know, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement is under the aegis of my Department, which is not ideal on a number of fronts. A company law enforcement agency being an office in a Department is quite an old-fashioned structure. Once the legislation is passed, with the agreement of the Oireachtas, the idea is to establish the office as an agency in its own right with a...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I hope to have it published before the recess but it will be the autumn session before we get to debate it.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. We have a dedicated climate team headed by a principal officer in the Department. There is a question of whether we should expand it, perhaps rebadge it and develop it into a climate and circular economy unit. I had not thought about it but now the Deputy has said this to me, I will give it some thought and reflect on it. We will have a new climate action plan in the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I will pass on the questions with regard to wind energy and carbon capture and storage. I have some knowledge or idea about these areas but the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is much more across them than I am and I do not want to say something that turns out to be wrong as I would then spend the rest of the day trying to correct it. I hope that is okay.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I will pass those questions on to the Minister. On the issue of data centres, they present a real dilemma. There has never been more data in the world. There is going to be more and more data in the world over the coming years and decades and they have to be stored somewhere. It is of real strategic advantage for Ireland to be a place where data are stored. They are a really valuable...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Message to Dáil (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: No. I think that covers it. I thank members for their engagement and their questions. I know there were one or two things that I did not answer or did not answer properly. We have taken a note of them and will revert to the members in correspondence.

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Flexible Work Practices (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: This year, on January 15th, my Department published ‘Making Remote Work’, the National Remote Work Strategy. The objective of the Strategy is to ensure that remote work is a permanent feature in the Irish workplace in a way that maximises economic, social and environmental benefits. The Strategy is built on three pillars which are bolstered by underpinning conditions. These...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: State Properties (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The following table outlines properties rented by IDA Ireland in 2019 and 2020, and the rents paid on each property in 2019 and 2020.IDA does not currently rent any lands. Office Rents paid in 2020 (euro) Rents paid in 2019 (euro) Ireland Global HQ (3 Park Place) 3,924,097 2,695,529 ...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Data (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 67 to 69, inclusive, together. Regional development is at the centre of IDA’s new strategy, Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021-2024. IDA Ireland is committed to the pursuit of more balanced, compact regional development which can deliver complementary efficiency and equity gains, with the overall impact of helping to advance national...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: State Bodies (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Regional development is at the centre of IDA’s new strategy, Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021-2024. IDA Ireland is committed to the pursuit of more balanced, compact regional development which can deliver complementary efficiency and equity gains, with the overall impact of helping to advance national development. The IDA will target half of all investments (400) from...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Policies (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Public bodies’ statutory duty to eliminate discrimination, promote equality, and protect human rights of staff and service users is the responsibility of all Departments and other public bodies individually. Goal 6 of my Department’s Statement of Strategy 2021 to 2023 sets out the Department’s ambition for a strong public service ethos driving effective and responsible...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Disabilities Assessments (29 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: My Department and the agencies under its remit are committed to disability inclusion and to fulfilling the obligations set out in the ‘National Disability Inclusion Strategy’ (2017-2021). In line with the Government’s Comprehensive Employment Strategy for Persons with Disabilities, the Department and agencies operate a policy of equality of opportunity for all staff,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I will certainly raise the matter with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and let her know he raised it in the House. I understand there is a review under way at some level but I am not across the details of it. I had the pleasure of walking a section of the Beara-Breifne Way around Millstreet. I would love to do the whole length of it, from north to south, some time. It is a walk with huge...