Results 8,581-8,600 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Time flies. Getting back to business, the Whip informs me that the Minister, Deputy Foley, will be in the Dáil next week to answer questions, will answer questions on this matter, and will be happy to do so. In my view, if one looks at this rationally, the shops are open, hotels and restaurants are open, hairdressers and barbers are open. The Dáil, albeit in unusual...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister will be in the House next week taking oral questions, and I am sure that among those questions will be questions on schools reopening. The Business Committee is giving consideration to an additional slot as well to deal specifically with this issue. What the Minister, Deputy Harris, produced the other day in terms of third level reopening is welcome. It paints a pathway by...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important issue. I know Members from all parties in this House have taken an interest in this important matter. There are hundreds of thousands of parents across the country who are concerned about this and want to know the details and how their children will go back to school at the end of the year. There are more than 1 million children and young...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Credit Guarantee Scheme (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The new €2 billion COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme announced by Government forms a major component of the Government’s strategy to aid SMEs in these difficult times by providing critical support to ensure businesses are facilitated in having access to credit facilities to assist a return to a more regular trading environment. It is a further development of the existing Credit...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Sports Facilities (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government's July Jobs Stimulus, to be announced this week, will extend, enhance and add to the existing measures for COVID19 impacted businesses already announced. The July Stimulus will help all firms meet the costs incurred during lockdown and in re-opening, in addition to the range of measures already in place. In that regard, I am considering how the effectiveness of the Restart...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (23 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government has introduced a range of measures for firms of all sizes, which includes the wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment for the self-employed, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities, all of which will help to improve cashflow amongst SMEs. Full details on all COVID19 supports for business are available at: Any eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government has introduced a range of measures for firms of all sizes, which includes the wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment for the self-employed, grants, low-cost loans, write-off of commercial rates and deferred tax liabilities, all of which will help to improve cashflow amongst SMEs. Full details on all COVID19 supports for business are available at: . Any eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Workplace Relations Commission (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: If an Employer/Respondent fails to comply with a decision of an Adjudication Officer of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), or a decision of the Labour Court arising from an appeal of an Adjudication Officer's decision, within the prescribed time, an application may be made to the District Court in accordance with section 43 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 for an order directing the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) is a progressive and comprehensive trade agreement between the EU and Canada. CETA has provisionally applied since 21st September 2017 meaning that duties on 98% of products (tariff lines) that the EU trades with Canada have been removed. The reduced trade barriers, tariff elimination, simplified customs procedures and more...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Brexit Supports (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In 2017, Enterprise Ireland developed and launched a Brexit SME Scorecard, an interactive online platform which can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six business pillars. The Brexit Scorecard remains a very informative tool to help companies understand their Brexit exposure and generate a Brexit action plan. To date 7,211 scorecards have been...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The numbers of applications processed varies between Local Authorities. Delays in processing can occur for a variety of reasons such as lack of relevant information provided by applicants, further information being sought from applicants, applications made in respect of properties not relevant to a particular Local Authority, adjustments necessarily being made to software systems to match...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Rights (22 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Maternity benefit and sickness benefit payments to employees are administered by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The Unfair Dismissals Act 1979 and the Redundancy Payments Act 1969 are currently the responsibility of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection although they will shortly move to my Department as part of a wider Transfer of Functions....

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Health and Safety Authority (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Health and Safety Authority currently has 175.5 whole-time equivalent staff which is made up of staff in administration and inspector grades. Inspectors operate across all of the Health and Safety Authority’s statutory mandates covering occupational health and safety, chemicals and market surveillance of products. These inspectors may also be involved in either general inspection,...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Workplace Relations Commission (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In June this year, the WRC reported a median time to a hearing of 3.5 months; this compares with 4 months for the same period in 2019. The emergency measures introduced in an effort to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus have imposed challenges on how to proceed with complaint adjudication in a fair and procedurally safe manner. This is likely to be reflected in median times later this...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Stimulus Package being announced by the Government is a culmination of work across a number of Government Departments . Each Government Department has carefully considered how the impact of COVID-19 along with associated economic challenges have affected the sectors under their remits. As part of this, Departments will have engaged across a range of stakeholders especially sectoral...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Under the terms and conditions of the current Restart Grant scheme and for further clarity, the qualifying criteria is essentially that the applicant business in its totality must not have more than 50 staff overall and have a maximum turnover of €5 million. A business with a number of stores in one Local Authority region or in several, that each has a rates bill, is eligible to...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Ministerial Responsibilities (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Mr Robert Troy, T.D., is the Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation and will chair the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Digital Single Market. The key focus of the Inter-Departmental Committee is on ensuring effective whole-of-Government engagement with the Digital Single Market agenda, particularly in terms of developing a coherent and coordinated...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Health and Safety Authority (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am aware of the views of ICTU concerning the requirements around the reporting of COVID-19 to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and, indeed, I intend to meet ICTU soon. Separately, I would like to advise the Deputy that COVID-19 has been included as a notifiable disease under the Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Any infectious disease pandemic is first and foremost...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Ministerial Advisers (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the commencement of every Dáil, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issues guidelines setting out the arrangements for the staffing of Ministerial Offices. The Guidelines for the 33rd Dáil are currently awaiting Government approval. It should be noted that the appointment of individual Special Advisers is a matter for each Government Minister subject to the terms...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Proposed Legislation (21 Jul 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government has committed in the Programme for Government to: - Review whether the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and the liquidation of companies effectively protect the rights of workers; - Review the Companies Act with a view to addressing the practice of trading entities splitting their operations between trading and property with the result...