Results 661-680 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Schemes (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: With over 300,000 people employed in the sector, retail is the largest private sector employer in the country supporting jobs in every city, town, and village. My Department provides a range of tailored supports for businesses of all sizes including retail businesses. Digitalisation is no longer an option, or solely a route to innovation but an essential business step for future proofing...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: Ireland’s employment permits system is designed to accommodate the arrival of non-EEA nationals to fill skills and labour gaps for the benefit of our economy, in the short to medium term but this objective must be balanced by the need to ensure that there are no suitably qualified Irish/EEA nationals available to undertake the work and that the shortage is a genuine one. The system is...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Data (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 189, 190 and 191 together. Specific data sets pertaining to levels of ‘non-recorded overtime’, ‘bogus self-employment’ or ‘abusive sub-contracting’ are not held within my Department as outlined by the Deputy. However, I note and welcome the recently announced provisional political agreement on the directive on...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Schemes (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: My officials are examining the potential policy and legislative options to address this issue. As previously advised there are a number of complex issues to be addressed as part of this process. It is necessary to develop solutions which cut across company and bankruptcy law and the manner in which insolvency can be verified. It is also important to find a solution that provides...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: Reply awaited from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (14 Jun 2022)

Damien English: Reply awaited from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (2 Jun 2022)

Damien English: The Local Enterprise Offices and Enterprise Ireland provide advice and assistance to indigenous businesses to help them start-up, grow and eventually develop their export potential. As such they do not provide any financial benefits to businesses for transportation costs for employees who are Ukrainian refugees. The Revenue Commissioners provides guidance on its website on payments made...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (31 May 2022)

Damien English: The Hair and Beauty sector plays a valuable role in our local economies, it makes a significant financial and employment contribution regionally, with a presence on high streets throughout Ireland. The Local Enterprise Offices offer a broad range of training and development programmes to support entrepreneurs on their journey. The Start Your Own Business (SYOB) programme guides...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (31 May 2022)

Damien English: The Employment Permits Section of the Department inform me that a standard General Employment Permit application for the person concerned (details supplied) was received on 24 March 2022. The Employment Permits Section are currently processing standard new General Employment Permit applications received on 31 January 2022. Following the Review of the Occupational Lists announced by...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (26 May 2022)

Damien English: The State's employment permit system is designed to supplement Ireland's skills and labour supply over the short to medium term by allowing enterprises to recruit nationals from outside the EEA, where such skills or expertise cannot be sourced from within the EEA at that time. The system is, by design, vacancy led and managed through the operation of the occupation lists: the critical...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 May 2022)

Damien English: A new work group was set up by the Tánaiste in recent weeks to look at the whole area of self-employment. It brings together all the members of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. The first meeting took place took two weeks ago, which I chaired. The work group is reviewing all of these issues and will bring forward recommendations, through LEEF, to my Department and the...

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Payment of Interns) Bill 2022: Second Stage (25 May 2022)

Damien English: It was important that I came in early on this debate because we are not opposing the Bill and I want to be clear on that. I thank Senator Sherlock and her team, including Senator Wall, for bringing forward this Bill. We are happy to engage with the Senator to get behind what it is that she genuinely wants to achieve and to see if it threatens the legal position or not. We need to deal with...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (25 May 2022)

Damien English: The table attached shows the number of employment permits that have been granted in each year from 01 January 2019 to 20 May 2022 inclusive, and also the numbers granted to each country. My Department experienced a significant increase in applications for employment permits in the past year. From the start of January to the end of December 2021, some 27,666 applications were received,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Industrial Relations (25 May 2022)

Damien English: At the outset, it is important to emphasise that Ireland’s system of industrial relations is essentially voluntary in nature. For its part, the State provides the industrial relations dispute settlement mechanisms to support parties in their efforts to resolve their differences. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Labour Court are independent offices of my Department....

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Fishing Industry (25 May 2022)

Damien English: A Memorandum of Understanding on the monitoring and enforcement of the Atypical Worker Permission Scheme for non-EEA fishers employed on certain Irish-registered fishing vessels was signed by 11 Departments and Agencies in May 2016. The MoU provides, among other matters, for further coordination, cooperation and information exchange between the parties. The Workplace Relations Commission...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 May 2022)

Damien English: As the Deputy knows, the permits do not cover that area at the moment but we are doing a review which is starting in the next couple of weeks. We have been engaging with the various Departments and agencies over the last couple of weeks to gather the evidence to make the case. If there is a case being made to extend the work permits into that area, it is something we can do. The decision...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (24 May 2022)

Damien English: My Department experienced a significant increase in applications for employment permits in the past year, impacting on processing times.  From the start of January to the end of December 2021, some 27,666 applications were received, representing a 69% increase over the same period in 2020 (16,293) and a 47% increase on 2019 (18,811), which itself represented an 11 year high in...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Regulation (24 May 2022)

Damien English: Under the Employment Agency Act 1971, an employment agency operating in Ireland must hold a licence to carry out its business. If an employment agency has a premises in the state, it must obtain a licence. An employment agency operating outside Ireland will be subject to regulation, if any, of the jurisdiction in which it is located. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), on behalf of the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Childcare Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising this Commencement matter on this very important area. She has outlined very clearly the importance of the Government focusing its work on this space, in conjunction with the private sector. I am pleased she indicated that in the most recent budget, and preceding ones, funding was increased to the sector, which was very important. The focus was on...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Childcare Services (19 May 2022)

Damien English: The Senator raised a couple of issues. I will address the funding. Public funding has increased significantly in the past seven or eight years, and rightly so. There is also significant private funding in this area as well as funding from families. It is not all Government funding, but it is certainly Government assisted. As I said, I think it is possible for the process to be completed...