Results 19,341-19,360 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Amendments Nos. 31 and 39 are being introduced in aid of the labour inspectors and will provide them with a statutory basis to use reasonable force where necessary in order to gain entry to premises connected with the employment of persons. In the majority of inspections, the employers consent to the inspections and inspectors are not required to use force to gain entry. However, the...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: While some of what is proposed makes sense, I do not agree with some of it. Senator Quinn is proposing the deletion of the subsection that allows an inspector to remove any books, documents or records from a place of work or premises and detain them for such period as he or she reasonably considers to be necessary for the purpose of his or her functions under the Act. I think that is a...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The purpose of these amendments is to clarify and remove confusion surrounding the effect of subsection (7) of this section and the capacity to use incriminating evidence given voluntarily after caution. Currently, the statutory functions and powers of labour inspectors are scattered over a large number of Acts dating back to 1946. Section 27 restates and consolidates all of those functions...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The Senator may be mistaken. Inspectors have always had the power to inspect. The Bill provides that for the purposes of the Act an inspector may enter at all reasonable times a place of work or any premises to do the work that inspectors do. This power is essential to their normal everyday work. Subsection (2) provides that an inspector may in certain limited circumstances be accompanied...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: We are seeking to respect constitutional requirements. The inspector may question anyone and demand answers but if a caution has not been issued to the person, this cannot be used as evidence against that person, although it could be used against another person. If a caution is issued, the evidence provided could be used against the individual being questioned. That is what we are seeking...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: We shall do so. I know there is quite a bit of debate around this issue but whatever we put in place needs to be legally robust and respect constitutional rights. We must proceed with caution and ensure that we have is robust. This is robust enough to withstand any challenge.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: As I understand it, the amendment requires a caution.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I will revert to the Senator and check it out before Report Stage. We are seeking to achieve a balance so that where there is a caution, evidence can be used. If compulsion has been used to obtain the answers, the evidence cannot be used. I will revert to the Senator about this.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: As I understand it, the power would allow a person to question a party and demand answers. Compulsive powers of an inspection are used in that case. The evidence could only be used against another person and not the person against whom the compulsory powers are used. This is in order for the process to be legally robust. We have had engagement to ensure anything we put in here is legally...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I would have thought every court case involves witnesses who produce evidence against a person. That is what is used ultimately as-----

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: If one takes a case against an individual, one arraigns the witnesses and seeks to establish that an offence was committed. The testimony of those witnesses is evidence against a third party. The Senator is saying it is unthinkable that one would have evidence against a third party. If the information was acquired from that individual under some compulsion, the provision provides that if...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: There are two ways of doing this. Either one warns them and says, "Anything that you say will be taken down in evidence and may be used against you", or one says, "I am compelling you under my rights as an inspector that you must answer the following questions, but in compelling you to do so your answers cannot be used as evidence against you because you cannot be compelled to be a witness...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: That is what happens in every case.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: In gathering evidence a person can be compelled. We are giving compulsion powers to require people to answer questions. It is much like a tribunal, as I understand it. If somebody refuses to answer a question in a tribunal, that is an offence. Equally, we know that evidence produced in a tribunal cannot be used to prosecute the people who were compelled to come to it.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Section 28 currently provides that the manner in which an appeal against a compliance notice to the Labour Court would be effected, and likewise an appeal of the decision of the Labour Court to the Circuit Court under this section, would be subject to regulations made by the Minister. This amendment obviates the need for the Minister to make such regulations and provides that the...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The period of 42 days an employer has to initiate an appeal against a compliance notice issued by an inspector and an appeal from the Labour Court to the Circuit Court, mirrors the standard appeal period which applies, for example, to the bringing of an appeal to the Labour Court from the decision of an adjudication officer. An important principle underlying the procedural reforms which the...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: We are providing the same period for workers and for employers. It is six weeks in both cases. That is fair. Not all employers have all the resources in the world, as Senator Craughwell said. That is not the truth for all employers.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: It is an even-handed approach. The same provision is being made for all parties in respect of these periods.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Enterprise Ireland is the agency under my aegis to help companies throughout Ireland start and scale, innovate and remain competitive on international markets. The companies that Enterprise Ireland works with are a vital source of employment in every county and region across Ireland. In 2014, EI assisted companies generated 19,705 new jobs. This resulted in a net increase of 8,476 in the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Initiatives (19 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Any barriers to entrepreneurship are of concern to this Government and we have studiously addressed this issue since March 2011. In October 2014 I published the first ever National Entrepreneurship Policy Statement which sets out the Government's strategic objectives in key areas that impact on entrepreneurs and startups, and signposts the direction which policy will take in the coming...