Results 681-700 of 4,593 for speaker:Neale Richmond

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Funding (17 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: The Deputy will be aware that my Department has secured up to €145m in regional enterprise funding which is aimed at accelerating economic growth and sustainable job creation across all regions of the country. The first call under the ‘Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme’ was announced last week. This €35m call will capitalise on existing regional enterprise...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Employment Rights (17 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) are statutory instruments drawn up by a Joint Labour Committees (JLC), adopted by the Labour Court, and given statutory effect by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The ERO fixes minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for workers in specified business sectors: employers in those sectors are then obliged to pay wage rates and...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Enterprise Policy (17 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I am very aware of the continuing challenges that businesses, including restaurant businesses, still face due to the cost of living crisis. For that reason, we are introducing the Increased Cost of Business Scheme (ICOB). The ICOB will be a targeted grant payment paid out by local authorities which will apply to businesses operating out of a rateable premises, at a rate of up to half their...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (17 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: The meat processing industry have been provided with access to the General Employment Permit over the last number of years, most recently with an additional quota of 425 permits made available in June last year. All quotas for meat processing operatives have now been filled. These and other agriculture/agri-food quotas were opened with a proviso that a strategic review on labour...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (17 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: An application for an employment permit seeks to secure permission to take up employment in the State on the basis of a job offer to fill a current vacancy in an eligible role from an Irish employer to a suitably qualified or skilled non EEA national. Applications are subject to a range of requirements and criteria set out in the employment permits legislation and are granted to the non EEA...

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: This is, fundamentally, a good budget, one that delivers for families, households and workers across the country, and one that puts money back into people's pockets and helps them deal with the rising cost of living. Importantly, this budget also delivers for business. Without a growing economy, we would not have the resources to fund so many initiatives to improve our society, from...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Living Wage (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: On Tuesday, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, announced a €250 million investment from this Government in SMEs. This new fund will benefit 87% of rate-paying businesses across the country. This is in recognition of the need to increase the minimum wage, move towards a living wage, as well as accepting the increased costs to businesses. This grant will be paid into the bank accounts of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Living Wage (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I thank Deputy Quinlivan for asking this well-timed question. I am extremely supportive of the living wage. It is part of our commitment to making work pay and supporting workers. As the Deputy correctly stated, the low-paid workers in our society are facing the same increases in the cost of living as the rest of us. They see their energy bills rising and are faced with childcare costs,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Living Wage (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: The Government has flagged its aim to reach the living wage by 2026. There is no electoral context. It is not linked to the lifetime of the Government. We are moving steadily towards it. Will Deputy Quinlivan clarify whether it is still Sinn Féin's position that 60% of the median wage, moving towards 66%, is a living wage, as was the general consensus, or has it changed? It is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Work Permits (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: As the Deputy knows, we in the Department are well aware of how important the work permit system is to both businesses and Irish consumers. As the Deputy would have heard in debates earlier this morning, over 40,000 work permits were allocated last year. This year, the number will be around 38,000 for people outside the EEA. With full employment and more people at work than ever before,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Work Permits (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I acknowledge that every sector of the economy is having difficulties when it comes to labour. It is very difficult to say that this should not have been allowed to happen. It is a result of the fact that we have the fastest growing economy in the EU. We have the largest number of people at work in the history of the State, and we effectively have full employment. It is the mark of a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Work Permits (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I am committed to having those meetings when it is appropriate to do so. We have to conclude the review and look through the data. The last time this review was done, we received ten or 11 submissions. This time it has been multiples of that. That just shows where we have gone. Last year, 40,000 work permits were handed out. The number handed out the previous year was 19,000, and the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Legislative Process (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I will underline that this has not been kicked to the Department of Social Protection. The Deputy has now made that accusation a second time when I have clearly said that has not happened. We are dealing with a pensions issue. While it is of course under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as the Deputy's Bill involves an amendment to the Industrial Relations...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Legislative Process (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: The Deputy is misrepresenting things. That is unfair.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Legislative Process (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I appreciate the opportunity to address this question. In April when the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I met the Deputy and representatives to discuss her Bill, the representatives of various retired persons associations expressed their concerns about the protections in place for people who were already in receipt of pensions. At that meeting, I was informed that these representatives had...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Legislative Process (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: The Deputy raised a couple of points. As she knows from the previous times this matter was raised, progressing the Bill is a matter for her. The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment met in public session in January to conduct detailed scrutiny of the Bill. Following that meeting, our Department issued a detailed brief to the committee, as requested, and nothing further has...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I thank Deputy O’Reilly for the question. I think she knows my strong belief in these orders and support for them. In Ireland, there are three such mechanisms for setting wages in particular sectors, which all include flexibility to take into account the minimum wage conditions in place both now and into the future. First, an employment regulation order, ERO, sets the minimum...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I will make three points on that. First, people are always open to challenge in the courts. We believe in that as a democracy and we have to accept that, even when an order is agreed by employers and employees. There will always be some who want to challenge for whatever reasons. Second, I acknowledge the rates in security are very tight but, again, it is the minimum. It is the floor and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: We can set a new order for that sector as soon as January. It was six months in previously. I encourage employers and employees to get around the table and start working towards that. These SEOs are done with the full co-operation of employers and employees and their representative bodies. Both sides come to the table and work out something and these work very well in the large majority...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Regional Development (12 Oct 2023)

Neale Richmond: I very much welcome the ambition set out by the independent Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce in their Final Report. The Taskforce’s vision for an Atlantic Green Digital Corridor, developing from the Shannon Estuary and stretching from Cork to Donegal is more than an energy strategy; it is also about reshaping the Irish economy very fundamentally, and it offers a tangible opportunity...