The draft plan is completed. We worked with the stakeholders and I took the opportunity to acknowledge the good work that the stakeholders have done over the past six months in bringing the plan and we will launch it in March. No doubt the Deputy will be invited to the launch.

To return to what I said at the beginning, these are bottom-up plans. They are plans that are derived by the key stakeholders themselves in each region. They are the people who know the opportunities and threats in their respective communities. The Ireland west plan is chaired by a very good entrepreneur who has created a very successful company and job opportunities in the west and who is working collaboratively with the key stakeholders in the west to devise a plan that is unique to the west of Ireland. That is h…

Ireland continues to be an attractive location for foreign direct investment, with strong foreign direct investment, FDI, results in recent years, despite Covid-19 and a downturn in global FDI. I have not been notified of companies leaving because of changes to corporation tax or any other costs to businesses. In fact, the trend has been very positive, with IDA Ireland recently announcing that the number of people employed in multinational companies in 2021 grew by 29,000 new jobs to reach a total of 275,384, the h…

I thank Senator Mullen for bringing forward this legislation and I welcome the opportunity to be in the Seanad to discuss the Bill and hear the contributions of the various Senators. As previous speakers said, it is timely and important legislation, and I very much share Senator Mullen's ambition for positive change in this area. Senators will be aware that I have today published the general scheme of a Bill to enhance and reform the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. The general scheme relates to commitments in t…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." It is accepted by most representatives in the House that the transformation of this country's economy from an inward-looking, State-dominated economic model to one of export-oriented growth, dynamic competition and increased choice for our citizens has resulted in unimaginable societal and economic progress for the State and its people over the past 30 years or so. Much of this progress arose from policy decisions made and voted on by the Oireachtas, driven by the …

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this topic today and giving us the opportunity to debate it in the House. He has correctly said that the digital world is growing and is very much a part of our everyday lives. It is important that the Government and all of us as legislators are responsive and, crucially, future-proof our laws, society and economy to keep pace with future developments as they happen. The metaverse is still a relatively new concept in its early stages of development. The full gamut of opportunities,…

Senator Byrne is right when he says it is clear that we need to remain watchful on the regulatory front. The Government is committed to regulation that addresses the issues technology has posed in a coherent way and takes the interests of users and providers into account for a balanced result. Yesterday we published our national digital strategy. We have committed to a digitalisation fund of €75 million to help enterprises. Some enterprises are not even digitally literate at the moment. There is a way to go to brin…

I thank Senator Ruane for putting forward her amendments. With the permission of the Chair, I will speak to amendment No. 1 and to amendment No. 2, which has been ruled out of order. I thank the Senators for bringing forward amendment No. 1. It permits me to provide further clarity regarding the existing functions of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, which will become the functions of the new authority. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has responsibility for enforcement in resp…

I understand that the Senator is concerned that the proposed section 944AE(3) will limit the publication of, and therefore the transparency of, administrative sanctions imposed on directors in certain circumstances. This is important, and I agree that such limitations should be minimal. However, there is an important reason for their inclusion in this Bill in the first place. I will try to explain this as clearly as possible so that there is no misunderstanding about the need for and rationale behind this rule. Thi…

To reiterate, we considered this proposal. It was raised during pre-legislative scrutiny, on Second Stage and Committee Stage in the Dáil and on Second Stage in this House last week. The proposal has been considered, therefore, but there is no flexibility here because we are simply transposing EU regulations. These regulations were brought in as a result of the financial crash and concern audit requirements. We are transposing those aspects via this legislation. As I said already, this legislation is only concerned…

As I said, the proposed new section 944T clearly states that there is going to be an annual report and that it "shall include information in such form and regarding such matters as the Minister may direct but nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring the Authority to include information the inclusion of which would, in the opinion of the Authority, be likely to prejudice the performance of its functions". Therefore, there is absolutely no reason this information cannot be included in the annual rep…

There is no problem in giving that commitment and it does not alter the Bill. We can direct that as part of its annual report the authority would publish details of what investigations have been concluded and the percentage of those investigations published in that regard. That is no problem.

I thank Deputies for their contributions to the debate. The agenda for this week's meeting of the European Council is being discussed by EU affairs ministers at the General Affairs Council meeting today at which the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is representing Ireland. The Taoiseach has outlined his expectations for the Eastern Partnership summit as well as the European Council's discussion on Covid-19, security and defence, external aspects of migration and external relations items on Belarus and Ukraine. He h…

The issue of false self-employment has been discussed many times, including at the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, subgroup on employment and enterprise in May. Officials from the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and the Workplace Relations Commission attended and explained their individual roles on enforcement and compliance in this area in respect of taxation, PRSI and employment rights. While there was some debate about the actual scale of the problem, there was general agreement …

The precise number of incorrectly classified self-employed workers is not known. I accept the Deputy's anecdotal evidence in this regard but the most recent, pre-Covid, CSO labour force survey statistics from the first quarter of 2020 show the number of self-employed individuals in Ireland at the end of March 2020 stood at 331,600. This represents an increase over the year of 2.4%. However, the previous year had shown a decrease of 3.8%, indicating marginal fluctuation in the figures. While there is anecdotal evide…

The Deputy continuously refers to the haulage industry, which I am aware is having difficulty in recruiting drivers. However, having engaged with the industry, I also know there are haulage companies that are offering very good terms and conditions of employment and they, too, are having serious difficulty recruiting staff. It is unfair to say the reason there is a difficulty in the haulage industry is that everybody is expecting hauliers to be self-employed. That is simply not the case and it is not factually accu…

As Minister for State with responsibility for trade promotion, digital and company regulation, I am pleased to introduce the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2021 for the consideration of the Seanad. A long version of my speech has been circulated which includes details of the provisions in the Bill. I have also made a briefing available to Senators. The primary objective of the Bill is to establish a new corporate enforcement authority, CEA. It is a landmark step to strengthen and transform the Off…

I thank the Senators who made a contribution to the debate this evening. The recurring theme in the contributions of the three Senators who spoke concerned the area of resources. There is a commitment that this body will be adequately resourced. Senator Gavan said there was political failure by successive Governments. I can only speak about the Government of which I am a member and, in the slightly more than 12 months that I have been in office, we have brought this legislation through the various Stages. This Bill…

Regional enterprise development is a key policy priority for me and the Government and is a core element of the national development plan. The enterprise agencies of my Department directly and indirectly support approximately 635,000 jobs in the regions outside Dublin. In preparing for Brexit, the Government introduced a range of measures to assist businesses and SMEs. The 2022 budget allocation provided to Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices will be used to service existing programmes as well as to…

The Deputy is right that the previous regional enterprise plans are coming to a close at the end of this year. Under the previous plan, €16.7 million was invested in the west on nine specific projects. The new plans are coming to the final stage. These plans have been developed through key stakeholder engagement, involving Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the local enterprise offices, local authorities and many private enterprises operating in specific regions. We want each plan to produce proposals unique to the s…