Results 19,541-19,560 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: There is some merit in what the Deputy is suggesting. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel has requested my Department to consult with the Courts Service and the President of the District Court in regard to this amendment. The wording of the amendment, as proposed, requires some further modification and I will consider putting forward an amended version of the wording by way of amendment...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: If one is providing for a penalty for not providing a payslip, one cannot infer that there is another much greater offence occurring, which is essentially what the Deputy is saying. He is saying that if we catch someone for failing to issue a payslip, he or she is guilty of something much more grave. I do not think we can make such an assumption. We would have to produce the evidence to...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: I know that I am not entitled to speak again, but one prosecutes such persons under the national minimum wage legislation. The legislation is in place to allow prosecution for non-payment. This simply is a fixed-notice penalty for a particular minor infringement. Clearly, if NERA detects that it does not just involve a minor infringement, that it is the tip of a much greater iceberg, it...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: The debate may be going off on the wrong tack somewhat. The fixed payment notice is not for non-payment of the minimum wage. The case of an employer who is found not to have paid the minimum wage will be prosecuted as a criminal offence and the worker will have rights in respect of the wages he was due. The fixed payment notices are for more minor offences and they are to be issued by...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Do I have two minutes to respond to Deputies Tóibín and Wallace?

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Section 32 as drafted is strictly limited in its application to information relating to the alleged commission of an offence under a relevant enactment, or the contravention of a relevant enactment. For this reason, the Deputy's proposed amendment to subsection 3 is inappropriate, as it is inconsistent with the section taken as a whole. The Deputy is seeking to amend section 32, the...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Deputy Tóibín's amendment seeks to ensure that where the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, identifies non-compliance with employment legislation, that information would be brought to the attention of the contracting body, which would be a public body, like a council, in respect of the main contractor. He proposes that this would be extended also to subcontractors, in...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Amendment No. 14 is not appropriate as section 7(2) provides for the criminal liability of certain persons connected with a body corporate in certain circumstances in the case of offences under the Bill. Extending liability for the debts of a solvent company through the officers of a company would, I am advised by the Attorney General, be constitutionally suspect and represent a major...

Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: I propose that the House suspend for five minutes.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Trade Missions (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: While some details are yet to be finalised, I am currently proposing to undertake trade and investment missions during the first half of the year to the Gulf Region, India, China and within Europe. This programme includes a mix of established and developing markets. Missions are also planned during the year to the US, UK, Germany, France, a number of other EU Member States, the UAE, South...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Jobs Data (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: The following tabular statement gives a breakdown on a county-by-county basis of the number of jobs created and lost in IDA Ireland client companies in respect of each of the years 2008 to 2014 inclusive. Data in relation to jobs created and lost in companies that are supported by the enterprise development agencies are tracked in the Annual Employment Survey, formerly known as the...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Consumer Protection (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: I have no plans to introduce legislation to require door-to-door traders to be licensed. The administrative burden on legitimate door-to-door traders, and the cost to the State, that would result from such a requirement would, in my view, outweigh the potential benefits. Given the informal nature of a sizeable proportion of door-to-door trading, such a requirement would also be difficult to...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Job Creation (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: While employment has increased nationally by approximately 80,000 since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, not all regions are yet fully experiencing the benefits of economic recovery. The Unemployment Rate for the Midlands and South East regions, for example, stand at 14.5% and 13.7% respectively. This compares to the national average of 11.1% in the latest Quarterly...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Company Closures (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: I am very disappointed that this company, which was established in Waterford only a few months ago, is now closing. IDA Ireland approved a grant assistance package for the company. However as no grants were paid, there is no liability attaching to the agreement with the IDA. In all instances where financial assistance is approved by the IDA for a company, the Agency and the client enter...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Small and Medium Enterprises Supports (21 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Addressing the cost of doing business is an area that Government is working to improve across the economy, in particular through the actions and initiatives in the Action Plan for Jobs. The membership fees of independent bodies do not fall within my area of responsibility. The ambition of Government generally is to get back to a top five competitiveness ranking. In this context, the Action...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Microenterprise Loan Fund Application Numbers (20 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: As of 9 January 2015 Microfinance Ireland (MFI) has approved 418 applications to the value of €6.4m supporting 947 jobs. All the figures that the Deputy has requested are available in the quarterly and yearly progress reports which are published on my Department’s website www.enterprise.gov.ie. The progress report detailing the analysis and performance up to the quarterly...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Research and Development Funding (20 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: The information requested by the Deputy is set out as follows: Year €M 2007 33.2 2008 54.3 2009 68.9 2010 72 2011 72.3 2012 103.7 2013 109.5 TOTAL 513.9 The above figures are for payments made during the years in question under grant awards to Irish entities under the Seventh Framework Programme. In the period from commencement of FP7 in January 2007 to its completion in...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Ireland Funding (20 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: In its End of Year Statement published on 12 January 2015, Enterprise Ireland reported that client companies created 19,705 new jobs in 2014. This resulted in a net increase of 8,476 in the number of people employed by Enterprise Ireland supported companies, the highest net gain in the history of the agency. This increase in employment reinforces Enterprise Ireland’s strategy of...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ministerial Advisers Remuneration (20 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: The number of special advisors in the employment of my Department at the end of each of the years 2007 to 2014 is set out in tabular format. Within the time allowed for reply, it has not been possible to precisely calculate the cumulative salary, travel, and other costs for each of the years in question to reflect changes arising from the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ministerial Transport (20 Jan 2015)

Richard Bruton: Details of the Ministerial drivers costs as requested by the Deputy since 2011 are as set out below in tabular format. As the costs of the salaries and allowances of Garda drivers under the scheme previously in place were paid by the Department of Justice my Department does not have those details and I, therefore, cannot provide a comparison of the cost of the two schemes. I will ask my...