Results 7,641-7,660 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to double-check that. Those schemes, as the Deputy will be aware, are run by Revenue and they are Department of Finance schemes rather than ones under my remit. I am across them, however, and certainly in terms of what I think would be right and just, we should not give taxpayers' money to companies that do not pay their taxes or that breach employment law. Why would we reward...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: -----does not pay taxes or obey our laws? I do not think that in a just society based on the rule of law, an allegation - I do not think the Deputy is saying this-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: -----is enough. There would have to be a finding. I need to check, and will do so, whether we have a legal mechanism to recover the money in the event of a finding.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the Balance for Better Business initiative, I launched that when I was Taoiseach. At the time, I think it was a creature of the then Department of Justice and Equality but I took a personal interest in it and responsibility for it is to be transferred from that Department to my Department. I will continue to take a personal interest in the initiative. It is all about increasing the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is referring to elections, which are a slightly different matter. It still seems to be the case that economic committees and boards tend to me more male. I am not sure why that is - actually I know why that is, but it is not right. I got the first report a couple of weeks ago. It shows progress and that the percentage of women serving on company boards has increased in those...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: That is what I said, but I am not sure it is quite what I meant. What I meant to say is that for quite a while now, the majority of clusters have been in private homes and that is where most people have been getting Covid, rather than in schools and workplaces. That is not to say one is more statistically like to get it in a school or workplace. I stand corrected.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It does not just arise in the home either; it has to come from somewhere. We could all stay in one place. If we all stayed in one bubble, we would either not infect each other or we would all infect each other and it would peter out. If we all just stayed in the one place, for example, if we all just stayed at work for X number of weeks, it would have the same effect as us all staying at...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a virus, so it spreads anywhere that people interact and that could be a home, workplace or school. However, what we know is that there are differences. The numbers from schools are very encouraging and there is not a lot of transmission, particularly from children to adults and vice versa. We also know that when it comes to homes and social gatherings, where there is a lot of...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Yes.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Outdoors is better than indoors and good ventilation is better than poor ventilation. To the extent that we have research now, and we are still learning a lot about the virus, it shows that the issue in the meat plants was much less about living conditions and transport and much more about the meat plants themselves and the way they organise their airflow. I think it is linked to the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is much higher in meat plants than in factories or offices of similar size with similar numbers of people.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We are working with the Office of Government Procurement to improve the preparation of business plans. Some supports are available from Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and the local enterprise offices to help vendors prepare tenders. A financial planning grant of up to €5,000 is available for businesses to get an accountant or consultant to help develop a recovery and...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I think you are right, Chairman. I see this across the board and across schemes. I do not blame businesses. They are struggling with Covid, a serious recession, and the fact that we had so many periods where people were marched to the top of the hill or brought to the edge of the cliff and Brexit did not happen. I am a little worried that some businesses may think that we will agree a...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I have regular interaction with the unions. Today, we had a Labour Employer Economic Forum meeting, LEEF. Patricia King, Laura Bambrick and Liam Berney were on the call. We did not go into much detail on low pay. We were talking about various other issues. I understand their position, which is that they do not accept the recommendation. Looking back over the years, recommendations have...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is not in my head but I will check it out.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Chambers Ireland is there.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 32 - Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (18 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I hear the Deputy. The Small Firms Association, which is part of IBEC, and Chambers Ireland would claim that they represent small business, but I appreciate there are internal politics in play.

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Wage-setting Mechanisms (17 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In January 2017, the Government increased the level of the National Minimum Wage to €9.25 an hour. Since the publication of the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 in April 2017 the Low Pay Commission has made a number of recommendations to increase the national minimum wage. These recommendations have always been accepted and implemented by the Government. The current...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Legislative Measures (17 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Ireland’s comprehensive body of employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on an employer-employee basis. Employment rights legislation was strengthened by the commencement, on 4th March 2019, of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018. The Act delivered on the Programme for Government commitment to address the challenges of the increased...