Results 661-680 of 7,983 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: First, Enterprise Ireland has achieved a record level of exports. There are approximately €34.5 billion of exports, of which 71% are outside the UK market. If we look broadly at where they are coming from, we can see steady growth in the eurozone region. Germany in particular has grown by double figures. It is up 14%. We are steadily growing our export market. We have seen...

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

Peter Burke: Absolutely.

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

Peter Burke: There are smaller players working through Enterprise Ireland as well. We have a service level agreement with our local enterprise offices, LEOs. We are trying to increase the number of smaller companies exporting into the marketplace and we are giving them the tools to do that. That is why we have a strong vehicle in Enterprise Ireland whereby any smaller enterprise that is trying to get...

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

Peter Burke: Absolutely. We are looking to set a target of 9% for SMEs with employees, which will be an increase from the current level of 6%. We are working through our strategy to do that with the LEOs, in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland. We anticipate very fertile growth because from our engagement with other markets, through the State agencies, the increase is very significant in many areas....

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

Peter Burke: No. In the White Paper on Enterprise we have a strict focus on digitalisation, decarbonisation and innovation. We have a target in our plan to get basic digital intensity to 90% of all SMEs by 2030. There is a huge amount of work under way to achieve that. We have put together a very significant funding package of €58 million for the digital transition fund. We have also...

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

Peter Burke: Our innovation voucher scheme with tertiary education has been increased for SMEs by up to €10,000 to try to form partnerships. If it is a small, manufacturing process, they could examine how they could innovate and improve their productivity. Those grants are important to help the smaller industries and SMEs, some of which are just around the kitchen table. There are so many...

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

Peter Burke: We fund innovation offices and knowledge offices through our third level education tertiary links. That is important for enterprise because once the links are established and the connection is there, the Government is able to fund the streams and then they can provide vouchers right to the SME client. They can set out what issue they need help with and what area they need assistance with...

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

Peter Burke: I thank Deputy Stanton for his engagement on this issue. I know he is a strong supporter of the proposal. It is important for the research community. As a Government, we are very committed to delivering the referendum. It is an important change which will really help that community. I will point out that we encountered a number of hurdles along the way. First, there were two...

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

Peter Burke: I can assure the Deputy that I will keep it firmly on the table with my Cabinet colleagues. Obviously, I cannot give a clear assessment here unilaterally as regards the timing of the referendum. As I said, I am ensuring we are doing our job in terms of engaging with the sectoral interests. I am keeping it on the table and in discussion at Government levels but obviously the Government will...

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....