Results 641-660 of 7,954 for speaker:Peter Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: On foot of a Supreme Court decision regarding the State's ability to ratify the agreement, we have set up a steering committee to provide a roadmap for its implementation. I will just get a note on the roadmap. The Supreme Court decision was issued in November 2022, when it ruled by a majority of four to three on the ability of the State to ratify the agreement as Irish law stands. It also...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: We have a number of funding streams and loans schemes with the pillar banks. Over recent weeks, I have met with a number of the pillar banks. I am due to meet with Bank of Ireland next week to try to assess what the level of overdraft utilisation is across the economy and what sectors are potentially under pressure or feeling the pain of increased costs. We have done that piece of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Absolutely. That is a very important point. We are working closely with the Department of further and higher education and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in connection with the utilisation of the fund to better effect. There is over €1 billion of a surplus in the fund currently. We see much of a mismatch of skills across the sector, be it a small...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: It is an important fund. We can see how it was put to good effect by some smaller companies. If there are companies that have significant control of markets – almost all the market in some cases or a significant proportion of it – the fund is key at funding new enterprises that can innovate or offer an alternative product that could try to get in and seek market share in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Balance for Better Business is very important. I met with it recently. It launched a new five-year strategy and targets 40%-plus female representation across boards and leadership teams through to 2028. I absolutely concur that it is important we have additional female participation in senior leadership roles across our economy. It is critical. There are 2.7 million people employed and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: The feedback is very positive. We have a number of other changes on the horizon now with the single-use system, which will be more efficient in terms of the dual process of applying for a work permit, and a visa secondary to that. We will make it much simpler. Second, it is important that the permit follows the worker. That will make it more agile and make the system stronger for workers,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Sorry, what is the name of that site?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: I think the Deputy is referring to the Amgen site. We will continue to engage with the IDA. There have been a number of engagements further to parliamentary questions on the Deputy’s behalf in connection with it. I am happy to raise it with the IDA on the Deputy’s behalf and to continue to try to ensure we secure a business for it, which is important to the region.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the Senator for her interest in the SME sector. She quite rightly pointed out how important the green transition is to that sector. That is why, first of all, to demonstrate our support in the SME package we have increased funding streams. For the energy efficiency criteria, we reduced the capital contribution from applicants to 25% for grants up to the value of €15,000....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Regarding the green transition, the fund for which the Senator mentioned, there have been 340 interventions for audits from January to May. Absolutely, that needs to ramp up significantly on a national level. We will provide the impetus to do that. Obviously the LEOs have a service level agreement with Enterprise Ireland in terms of adjudicating on their performance and how they go about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: I thank the Deputy for his questions. I had my first meeting of LEEF last week, which was very positive. I have met with a number of the unions and business representatives. I have also met with ISME. It has been on the business forum and I met it at a separate bilateral engagement to hear its concerns. Obviously, it is affiliate to and working through the committee currently under IBEC....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Will the Deputy let me finish? IBM creates significant employment in Waterford. To see it continue to prosper and grow is significant. There is the new technological university, of which I am sure Deputy Shanahan is aware. It provides huge employment and services for the upskilling required throughout the country. In the region of €170 million was put in through the urban...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: I listed a number of multimillion euro interventions in Waterford. We have-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: There is well over €1 billion of investment that will happen in the future, be it urban regeneration, investment in the technical university, hospital, or the greenway - an exceptional demonstration of the work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Irrespective of where it is, the Government has about €165 billion of a capital programme over the next decade. It is underwritten by strong planning policy to ensure through, Project Ireland 2040, the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: Look at IBM. That demonstrates confidence in Waterford.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: We received the recommendation from the Low Pay Commission. To implement it, we await advice from the Attorney General's office. We also await an impact assessment on the economy. There have been significant cost increases. I want to ensure the actions I take do not have any negative effects. It is important to realise it was a unanimous decision and the Government will respect it but I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: We are waiting on the advice from the Attorney General. I cannot say exactly when his advice will be presented to the Department. I hope we will keep the pressure on to ensure it is not too long.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: We have done a significant amount of work through the LEEF committee. We met all actors to get together our plan for collective bargaining. Any country below 80% collective bargaining has to provide an action plan by the end of 2025, I think. We will meet that deadline. We are working on that plan. There are two issues relating to the LEEF high-level implementation group which require a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (3 Jul 2024)

Peter Burke: There are three sectoral orders which have been increased over the past number of weeks, representing different sectors. There is the minimum wage, as I said. From 2015, there has been a 42% increase in the minimum wage to ensure there is progression for workers' rights. We have seen the introduction of sick pay on a statutory level. We banned zero-hour contracts. We brought in tips...