Results 7,201-7,220 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I should mention that there are low-cost loans in place, for example, through credit unions. When I was the Minister for Social Protection, I established the "It Makes Sense" loan, which was a low-cost loan provided through credit unions. People could repay it through their weekly social welfare payments or, as was often the case, the household budgeting service. I am...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will take the matter up with the Minister for Finance and see what his thinking on it is. There may well not be evidence, but the absence of evidence does not necessarily mean it is not happening. As the Deputy knows, moneylending at extortionate rates happens off the books, which makes it inherently unofficial, and there will not be evidence unless someone comes forward and says it is...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Enterprise Support Services (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We do not have any plans to change the IDA regions. No matter where these boundaries are drawn, there will always be people who argue they should be somewhere else. There are merits and demerits but we think including east Galway and Roscommon in the west rather than the midlands makes most sense. I take the Deputy's point on Athlone as a designated regional growth centre in Project...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I join the Deputy in thanking and congratulating the staff in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and county councils throughout the country, for doing such a good job in processing all these applications. It was not a part of their normal work. They were asked to do it and it took a few weeks to get going, but they did it and they did it well. We rightly congratulate and thank...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is a €55 million scheme that will be administered by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. She and I are working closely together on tourism and hospitality issues because there is such an overlap between enterprise, employment, tourism and hospitality. I will certainly bring that matter to her attention but I cannot make a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Enterprise Support Services (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I again acknowledge the difficulty that the Aptar job losses present for Ballinasloe and the surrounding area, in particular the individuals and families directly affected. I met with the western regional enterprise steering committee on Friday 11 December by videoconference. The committee is comprised of representatives of various agencies, including Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Enterprise Support Services (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy knows, the IDA is going to market the Aptar site to alternative investors. The Deputy is correct that the 50 acres to which he refers is a valuable piece of land that can be developed for industry and employment. Ballinasloe has a lot of assets, including good transport links. I would have to talk to the IDA about the HSE lands. The IDA acts autonomously and, as a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The restart grant and restart grant plus schemes were designed to help small and medium-sized businesses during an exceptionally difficult time. The restart grant scheme was launched on 15 May, with a budget of €250 million. The restart grant plus scheme was launched on 10 August, with an additional budget of €300 million from the Government's July stimulus, as a result of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The original plan, Project Ireland 2040, and the national development plan which flowed from it stands. There was going to be a review in 2022 and we are bringing forward that review by a year. We should have the revised national development plan by the middle of 2021. There is more money going into capital expenditure than we intended so there will be some scope for new projects and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As part of the budget for 2021, there is an increase in the capital allocation to Irish Water so it will be getting more resources. I am aware that water services are a significant development constraint in many parts of the country. If we look at the list of works that need to be done and the available budget, it does not mean that everything is going to be done next year or the year...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Brexit loan scheme and the future growth loan scheme have very different objectives and were both established prior to the onset of the pandemic. The Brexit loan scheme was launched in 2018 to provide SMEs and companies with fewer than 500 employees with an option to access competitively priced working capital finance to help them to mitigate and react to the impacts of Brexit. It was...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I believe these schemes are targeted. There are many different loan and grant schemes. It may be the case that they are not targeted particularly to the Gaeltacht but they are targeted to small businesses. Microenterprises, which the Deputy mentioned, and enterprises with fewer than ten employees can benefit from the Microfinance Ireland loans, and there has been a very good uptake of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Tá an tacaíocht ar fáil do na daoine agus do na fiontair ar an talamh. I will take a look at that review. I received a brief summary of it but I have not read it from cover to cover and I will do that over the Christmas break. We have a package of grants and loans. There is, of course, more demand for grants than for loans because grants are not repayable and that will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The review of the national development plan is an important opportunity to assess our programme of investment in public infrastructure and ensure we are developing our physical infrastructure, human capital and cultural capital to serve the changing needs of our society and economy. The Government's priority is that we use our capital investment optimally to drive a jobs-led recovery and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: A company like that qualifies for the employment wage subsidy scheme and so it would receive money towards its payroll costs. The question in regard to a company like that is what its non-payroll costs are. In other words, what are the fixed costs not related to payroll that it has to cover? That is the kind of issue we are trying to explore at the moment. Without a premises, a business's...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We will keep this under review and if we find cases of people who are being refused their annual leave, we will take legislative action if we need to. It is important to say that people can carry over their annual leave for six months into the next year and that we are encouraging people to take their annual leave, because people need a break and to rest. Even if they cannot travel abroad...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is a misrepresentation of what I said. If there are examples of people who cannot take their leave, where they are being refused leave by their employer, whether it is a public service employer or private sector employer, we want to know about it, because an employer in those circumstances is breaking the law. People are entitled to their annual leave and can carry it forward for at...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Covid-19 restrictions support scheme was introduced to provide targeted compensation to those businesses adversely affected by the imposition of public health restrictions. It has advantages over the restart and restart plus grants as the amounts payable under the scheme can be varied depending on the length of time that restrictions are in place. The level of payment also reflects the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to bear in mind that any and all firms can qualify for the employment wage subsidy scheme. That is designed to help with the cost of the payroll and keeping staff on. The CRSS is designed to help with fixed, non-employment-related costs of keeping a company going. Those non-payroll costs tend to relate to the cost of running a premises. I mentioned sectoral schemes for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (17 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is absolutely right. Many of these workers live in my constituency and have been in contact with me already. There are 500 of them across the country. The first objective will be to save as many jobs as we possibly can save. The second will be to ensure that their rights and entitlements are guaranteed but with support and solidarity must come honesty. That means saying that,...