Results 18,041-18,060 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: IDA Supports (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 231 and 232 together. IDA Ireland actively markets and promotes Limerick as part of its Mid-West region, which comprises counties Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary. It is a long established and proven location for international business with a particularly strong track record as a centre for manufacturing excellence. There are currently 116 FDI...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Cross-Border Co-operation (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: Both of our main development agencies, Enterprise Ireland(EI) and IDA Ireland, engage with relevant bodies in Northern Ireland to pursue areas of mutual advantage. Developing all-island initiatives and cooperation can, in certain circumstances, better build our competitive advantage internationally. Extensive links have been forged by EI with various agencies and bodies in Northern Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: The Government launched its long-term enterprise policy in November. It is an ambitious strategy, with the objective of delivering growth over the next decade that is sustainable, led by strong export performance, builds on our sectoral strengths, and that is underpinned by innovation, productivity, cost effectiveness and competitiveness. We aim to build resilience into our economy so that we...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Industrial Development (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: The games sector experienced considerable growth in Ireland in recent years, with many of the sector’s largest global players having established operations in Ireland. The games sector in Ireland encompasses a breadth of areas including, for example games localisation, games development, platform development/porting, technology development/middleware, publishing and customer and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: State Properties (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: The lease on Carrisbrook House has been held by IDA Ireland since September 2013 following the completion of the assignment of properties from Forfás to IDA Ireland. Prior to this the lease passed through a number of State Agencies since 1969 when An Chomhairle Oiliuna (AnCo) first took out a 65 year lease on the building. The Israeli Embassy is currently the only occupant of the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, employment has increased by 135,800 across the economy as a whole and has exceeded the initial target set by the Government for 2016. Over 20,000 jobs have been created in the North East/North West region, which includes Donegal, since 2012. Jobs supported by the Enterprise Agencies in the region - IDA, Enterprise Ireland, and...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permit Application Numbers (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: Thirty-one permits were granted during 2014 (of which 14 were renewals) and eleven permits have been granted to date in 2015 (of which 2 were renewals). In general, the Government’s policy is that industry skills needs are met without recourse to the employment permit regime. Migration through the permits system is intended to complement the primary policy objective of Government,...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Ireland (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: Enterprise Ireland are striving for ambitious targets in 2015, building on the success of recent years, by aiming to support some 13,000 new jobs and increasing client exports to €20bn. Enterprise Ireland received an exchequer spending allocation of €163.4m for 2015 to support industry, comprising €50m for subhead A7 and €113.4m for subhead B4. Enterprise...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Legal Cases Data (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: The State Claims Agency (SCA) is the delegated authority for handling certain claims against my Department. The SCA will provide the details sought by the Deputy in relation to any such claims for my Department through the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In seeking to provide the Deputy with the information requested, other than the above-mentioned claims handled by the SCA, the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Departmental Staff Data (1 Dec 2015)

Richard Bruton: Aside from the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) (formerly Chief Executive of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC)), there are no contracts of indefinite duration for any staff in my Department - the staffing of the WRC being part of my Department's staffing complement. The contract of the Director General of the WRC, whose contract has been extended over the...

Other Questions: Trade Agreements (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: We have had this debate previously in the House. Free trade agreements are an effort to make it easier to trade across borders. In the course of the recent recovery, half of the extra jobs have come from exporting. We depend on access to markets as a key aspect of our ability to bring companies overseas and to grow. I have visited Japan, Canada and the United States with companies...

Other Questions: Trade Agreements (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: I would have to respect Professor Stiglitz, because I sat in his classes at some stage, but I must disagree with him on this issue. For a small trading economy like ours, if we can get the barriers down to conduct trade in ICT products for public procurement contracts in the United States, that is good business. It means a lot of smart companies that have solutions to problems can do...

Other Questions: Trade Agreements (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: The Constitution has offered investors far more protection than has ever been envisaged by the ISDS mechanism. We have very strong protections for companies and no one has complained that those protections have been abused. As I outlined in an earlier reply, the ISDS mechanism that has been put in place by Europe has been dramatically narrowed compared to the versions in some of the...

Other Questions: Regional Development (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: In respect of Irish-owned business, most of the effort and 70% of the budget I have goes into supporting Irish-owned business, and we have tried to do new things. There have been major improvements in access to finance and various instruments. There has also been a major expansion of Lean, innovation and other initiatives that can help companies to up their game, such as new models to help...

Other Questions: Economic Competitiveness (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: We have allocated extra staff to the LEOs, including new graduates, so we are attending to that and will review staffing levels.

Other Questions: Economic Competitiveness (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: I agree with the Deputy that competitiveness is crucial to our economic progress and the Deputy should acknowledge that exports from Irish-owned firms have been the star performers in our recovery. Last year, Irish-owned exporters created more jobs than the IDA. Most of the debate focuses on the IDA, but Irish-owned exporting companies created more jobs in 2014 than foreign-owned companies,...

Other Questions: Economic Competitiveness (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: The export plan set by the previous Government for 2014 was exceeded dramatically by Irish-owned enterprise. It is not true that Irish businesses are underperforming in the markets; they are exceeding expectations. We have enjoyed double-digit export growth from our Irish-owned companies in the past three years. That is exceptional performance. It is driven by some very innovative...

Other Questions: Economic Competitiveness (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: The Government adopted a national talent drive last year. The consequence of this is that the Minister of State, Deputy English, has introduced 25 new apprenticeships which will have 1,500 people enrolled each year in entirely new areas of apprenticeship as well as significant growth in the traditional apprenticeship areas. We have doubled the output in ICT. When we started, we were...

Other Questions: Regional Development (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: I welcome the Deputy's support for the process. One of the things we have lacked over the years is a genuine attempt to have bottom-up regional development which embraces the stakeholders in the region and gets them involved in a set of objectives for the region and actions that can transform it. As the Deputy knows, since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs we have seen a net increase of...

Other Questions: Regional Development (26 Nov 2015)

Richard Bruton: There will be a six-monthly review. I am attending the first six-monthly review, not of the midlands but of the south east, where we will be sitting down with the stakeholders. It is a broad base so it is enterprise as well as public bodies. We are starting that process of reviews. It will be a progressive element. It is an evolving process, so new ideas can be included and we will soon...