Results 281-300 of 3,513 for speaker:Emer Higgins

Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: No problem. I will answer them.

Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Me too.

Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." In bringing this Bill before the House, I am standing in for the Minister of State with responsibility for trade promotion, digital and company regulation, Deputy Calleary, who is travelling on official business. Before proceeding, I acknowledge the significant work by those involved, most notably in the past 12 months, to develop the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Workplace Relations Commission (25 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an office under the aegis of my Department and is independent in the exercise of its statutory functions. Given the independence of the WRC I cannot comment on individual cases. Decisions of adjudication officers of the WRC may be appealed by either party to a decision, within 42 days of the decision. In Ireland, robust mechanisms exist for the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Visa Applications (24 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Employment Permits Section of the Department informs me that a Critical Skills Employment Permit application for the person concerned in the details supplied was received on the 28th of August 2024 and the application was placed in the processing queue on the 29th of August 2024. On the 2nd September, the Critical Skills Employment Permit application was refused, as the minimum annual...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Schemes (24 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Since the last update provided to the Deputy on 21 March 2024, the General Scheme of the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) (Amendment) Bill 2024 was approved by Government on 28 May 2024. The Bill will make changes to the Insolvency Payments Scheme. These changes include:expanding access to the Insolvency Payments Scheme to protect employees of employers who cease trading...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (24 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Government has brought forward a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance support for small businesses. This includes changes to the Local Enterprise Office Energy Efficiency Grant. The Energy Efficient Grant (EEG) supports capital investment by businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and overall energy costs by accelerating the adoption of low carbon technologies...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Social Enterprises are an important and growing part of Ireland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, creating jobs and stimulating local economic activity and are recognised as an integral part of Ireland’s broad enterprise policy landscape. Policy responsibility for social enterprises lies with the Department of Rural and Community Development and in July this year my colleague...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Social Enterprise Sector (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Social Enterprises are an important and growing part of Ireland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, creating jobs and stimulating local economic activity, and are recognised as an integral part of Ireland’s broad enterprise policy landscape. Policy responsibility for social enterprises lies with the Department of Rural and Community Development and in July this year my colleague...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Legislative Measures (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Private Members Bill cannot be supported by Government as the proposed changes would fundamentally undermine the very concept of industrial relations, a process essentially involving workers and their employers. My Department’s position was clearly set out in a detailed brief provided to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment following its pubic...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: To support continued growth and business opportunities regionally, Enterprise Ireland (EI) established its representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 2020. Amid the trend towards global diversification of supply chains in the manufacturing and processing industry, Vietnam is fast becoming a surging hub for FDI inflows in recent years. The key objective of this EI office is to...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Employment Permits Section of my Department informs me that to date no Employment Permit application for the person concerned in the details supplied has been received. It should be noted that it is not permissible for a company to employ a non-EEA national without an employment permit. Applications for employment permits are dealt with in date order. The Employment Permits...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Enterprise Ireland's Go Global for Growth programme is aimed at companies that are looking to adapt and evolve their businesses to prepare for global growth. It provides training to senior leadership teams to enable them to work collaboratively on the creation of international growth action plans for their companies. The cost of doubling annual expenditure on Go Global for Growth training...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Government has brought forward a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance support for small businesses. This includes changes to the Local Enterprise Office digitalisation schemes. Digital Start was first introduced in 2022 and is now called Digital for Business. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the eligibility criteria for the Digital for Business consultancy...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Government has brought forward a substantial range of measures to reduce costs and enhance supports for small businesses. This includes changes to the Local Enterprise Office digitalisation schemes that were contained in the SME Package that was announced in May of this year. Digital Start was first introduced in 2022 and is now called Digital for Business. As part of the SME...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Following the recent Review of the Employment Permits Occupation Lists. a number of new quotas were introduced to provide General Employment Permit (GEP) access for certain previously ineligible occupations. The roles of motor/auto mechanics, car mechanics, and HGV/Bus mechanics were among the roles made available for permit under quota. The Employment Permits Section of the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (OWTA), which transposes the EU Working Time Directive into Irish Law, sets out minimum rest and maximum working time for employees as well as holidays and other miscellaneous issues. The Defence Forces are currently excluded from the provisions of the OWTA in its entirety. My Department’s objective is to develop the appropriate legislative...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Business Supports (18 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: My Department developed the Ukraine Enterprise Crisis Scheme (UECS) which provided funding to assist viable but vulnerable companies of all sizes in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors impacted by energy price rises and other direct consequences of the war in Ukraine. Since 2022 the Department has made payments of €9,473,881 to 40 businesses. The Energy...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Support Services (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) play an extremely important role at local level, as part of a supportive ecosystem, providing their services to small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship within towns and communities across the country. They provide a signposting service for all government supports available to SMEs and can provide information/referrals to other relevant bodies under...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Redundancy Payments (9 Sep 2024)

Emer Higgins: The Redundancy Payments Act 1967 sets out the formula for calculating the minimum redundancy payment which must be made to eligible employees when they are made redundant by their employer. This is referred to as “statutory redundancy”, and it is a lump sum payment based on an employee’s pay and length of service. An eligible employee is entitled to two weeks' pay for...