Results 681-700 of 1,262 for speaker:Garret Ahearn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Mr. Courtney talked about the recommendations the commission has given and how the Government has always supported them. There have been about ten increases in the minimum wage since 2011. Mr. Courtney talked about the percentage and how close we are getting to 60%. From where we were in 2011, we are at 51% now. Has that percentage consistently increased as we have gone along? Did it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is that in the living wage or the minimum wage in comparison to the living wage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: It is the percentage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The fear from a business perspective is about trying to get to 60% but we have been almost there before, at 58%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is it recognised that the market is strangely and very unusually, an employees' market at the moment, that they can dictate what job they want, where they want it and the terms and conditions? An awful lot of business owners would say that the employee is interviewing the employer rather than the employer interviewing the employee. There is a balance here. You do not want it entirely the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: When the commission decided that, was it taken into account that businesses have had a very difficult three or four years with Covid, the cost of living and the war in Ukraine? They have faced major challenges.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Low Pay Commission Recommendations on the National Minimum Wage: Discussion (18 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: That is not taking into account that we need to increase the minimum wage, obviously, and we have done that. Do the witnesses get the sense that there is a real fear on the part of businesses? I come from Tipperary. Particularly in small rural towns, there is a real fear about survival. A minimum wage increase in Cahir, where I am from, is very different to a minimum wage increase in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the new strict Cathaoirleach here today.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The Cathaoirleach will notice that I will be very obedient.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the announcement yesterday in the budget for businesses and the funding the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has secured for the €250 million grant to be given to businesses in the first quarter of 2024. This grant will be half of the rates bill that they paid in 2022, up to €20,000. Of the €20,000 they had been paying in rates, they will be able to claim half of...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I thank the Minister for being here. She said at the outset that she had full confidence in the board but she gave a strong statement a couple of minutes ago about things the board did that were totally unsatisfactory, especially in terms of its relations with politicians on this committee. What does the board have to do for the Minister to lose confidence in it?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The ordinary person watching this committee's meetings over the past number of months would ask how the Minister could possibly have confidence in those people. It is a question that we get asked all of the time. We are asked how we can have confidence in the board when its members have been so poor in their answering and so poor in their management over the last few months. The Minister...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Does extending that extend the timing for completing the review? Has the cost increased as well?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Will the cost increase?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Has the Minister got that figure yet?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is that in total or in addition?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The Minister said she would not like to see compulsory redundancies. Is that a possibility, however?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Would the Government fund voluntary redundancy, if RTÉ came forward with a strategic plan that would allow it to cut costs but could not afford doing so itself?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is that something that would be considered?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Most people would look at it in the sense that we are asking RTÉ to cut costs. Approximately 51% of the cost of running the organisation is staff. How can we do that without affecting staff?