Results 7,801-7,820 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Under Level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID-19, only essential retail outlets will remain open. The Regulations clearly set out the temporary restrictions and lists the essential services and essential retail outlets under Level 5. Level 5 does not restrict people from purchasing any product. It does however, restrict people from physically going into non-essential stores. This is to stop...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: IDA Ireland (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: County Kildare continues to be a consistent performer in terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). There are a total of 30 IDA client companies in Kildare which employ 8,872 people. County Kildare has a strong contingent of overseas firms in the Technology, Financial Services and Pharmaceuticals sectors with companies such as Pfizer, SGS, International Fund Services and KDP that...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Enterprise Ireland (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Supporting balanced regional development is a core goal of Enterprise Ireland. In 2019, EI client companies reported a record high of 221,895 people in employment.  16,971 new jobs were created, presenting a net gain of 4,706 new jobs when losses are taken into account.  65 per cent of this employment is located outside of Dublin. In 2019, 9,301 people were employed in the 194...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: State Aid (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My officials participated in the consultation process on the proposed extension of the State aid Temporary Framework and made a submission supporting the extension and highlighting the importance of the flexibilities under the Framework to allow for existing schemes to be extended and new schemes to be developed. I met with Executive Vice President Vestager, on 29thSeptember and one of the...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Ministerial Travel (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 175 and 176 together. I was disappointed to learn of the decision by Aptar to close its facility in Ballinasloe. My primary concern, as I have said before, is for the workers and families who have been impacted by this decision. Many of these workers have been with the company for many years. The Government is doing everything it can to help them...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Regional Enterprise Development Fund (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will be aware that the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), which is administered by Enterprise Ireland, was introduced to support the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at county, regional and national level. Over the last three years, Enterprise Ireland has approved funding to 68 projects...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Since his appointment, the current Director has undertaken a significant restructuring of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) to better reflect the organisation’s needs in the context of both its strategic shift towards deploying resources towards more serious indications of wrongdoing and the increasingly complex environment within which the ODCE operates. ...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Under Level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID-19, only essential retail outlets will remain open. I am not in a position yet to say what regulations will be in place for the winter 2020/2021 period. S.I. No. 448 of 2020 Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (COVID-19) (No. 8) Regulations 2020 clearly sets out the temporary restrictions under Level 5 of the Resilience and...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Foreign Direct Investment (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: IDA Ireland completed its five-year strategy in December 2019. Significant progress was made during this period in growing foreign direct investment jobs with total employment in multinationals standing at over 245,000 people, the highest in the history of IDA Ireland. However, the arrival of COVID-19 in Ireland earlier this year has presented undeniable challenges to our ongoing efforts...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The pandemic has caused untold damage to people's lives and livelihoods. I know that too many businesses have been severely impacted by the restrictions needed to ensure public health safety during the pandemic. Our response to COVID-19 will continue to assist those businesses affected. Budget 2021 provides a significant additional package of tax and fiscal measures to build the...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Services Sector (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Services sector in Ireland is a broad sector spanning a number of subsectors including financial services, aircraft leasing, business services and business process outsourcing, and international education services, many of which are under the remit of other Ministers. However, my Department maintains an overview of important sectors of the economy to facilitate a cohesive strategic...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Manufacturing Sector (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Essential manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals and medical devices has remained open throughout the pandemic under the public health guidelines.  However initial restrictions in March 2020 saw 37% of manufacturing employment move to employment supports.  This reduced gradually following the opening of residual elements of manufacturing in Phase I of the Roadmap for Reopening the...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Brexit Preparations (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My Department’s budget allocation for 2021 has been increased by €154 million or 15.9% on the 2020 allocation in addition to €100 million earmarked from the Recovery Fund for Brexit. This is a record allocation for the Department and will significantly bolster the capability of our enterprise and regulatory agencies to help businesses examine their Brexit exposure, seek...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Economic Policy (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Ireland’s economy was in a strong position prior to the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. There were an unprecedented 2.3 million people at work and unemployment levels at below 5 per cent were at an all-time low. However, the economy was highly exposed to the performance of a small number of firms in a small number of sectors, and a small number of export markets. The pandemic has...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Enterprise Data (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: While the majority of manufacturing and supply chains remain open as essential services, the sector faces ongoing challenges of capacity constraints, reduced demand and supply chain disruption. Given its export intensity, the manufacturing sector is very reliant on international trade flows and functioning global supply chains and on recovery in EU and global markets. Wider external...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Job Creation (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: According to the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) Labour Force Survey, female employees make up 29.5% of those employed in manufacturing and 53.1% of those employed in services. These proportions have not changed significantly in the past decade. Please see table below. Table 1: Employment in manufacturing and services by gender, Q2 2020 Sector Male (000's) %...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Trade Strategy (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Now more than ever, it is important to assist Irish companies increase their presence in existing markets and expand into new ones. The exporting sector will continue to be a strong engine for growth and jobs in the Irish economy as we rebuild after the pandemic. Over half of companies expect to grow their exports next year and that 83% expect to hire new staff. This is a testament to the...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Work Permits (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In March 2020, the Employment Permits Section of my Department implemented a COVID-19 contingency plan to ensure that the employment permit regime could continue to operate throughout the crisis.  Since 30th March, the employment permit system has been operating fully remotely and online.   Operational practices have been adjusted to replace the paper-based elements of the service...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Departmental Staff (10 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The tables below set out the numbers of staff in post in each grade at the end of each year as follows: Table 1 - The overall numbers of staff in the relevant grades and grade equivalents at each year end for the past five years. Table 2 - Provides further breakdown of the overall totals for each year by grade to those in post in a full-time capacity. Table 3 - Provides further breakdown of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. That is happening. We have signed the national broadband contract and work is under way. Unfortunately, it is going to take a couple of years but we will connect every home, farm and business in Ireland to high-speed broadband, and in the vast majority of cases we will be bringing fibre to the premises, which is a huge achievement and a big...