Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 January 2021
8. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the main policy initiatives undertaken by his Department since 27 June 2020; and his main priorities for 2021. [2082/21]
View answerMy Department’s focus is on achieving a strong recovery and sustainable economic development through business growth and jobs growth, resilience and innovation. We will continue to strengthen employment rights and champion the principles of responsible free enterprise and fair competition.
Future proofing our economy and society for the twin transition to a sustainable low carbon economy and the acceleration of digitalisation is central to our mission. Our relationships internationally are crucial as a small open economy and we will continue to build close and mutually beneficial relationships globally and grow our influence in the European Union.
To reflect the new focus of my Department, particular in relation to workers’ rights and employment affairs, we have re-named as the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
In the second half of 2020, my Department made significant progress in delivering on the wide range of Programme for Government commitments that fall under its remit, with a particular focus on implementing measures to assist businesses with the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. I have included some of this work below but the full range of initiatives delivered will be reflected in the Department's Annual Report for 2020 which is currently being compiled.
The €7 billion July Jobs Stimulus outlined a series of measures to boost the economy and provide confidence for employees and employers.
We launched the COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme, which provides loans to businesses of between €10,000 and €1 million. We published guidance on returning to work safely during COVID-19 and have finalised a national remote working strategy, which will be published very shortly.
The Restart Grant and Restart Plus Grant of €650m were specifically provided to ensure that businesses could access grant support to make necessary changes to premises to reopen safely.
The COVID-19 Online Retail Scheme is helping hundreds of businesses to respond to the urgent need for retail companies to achieve a step change in online capability.
My Department also ensured that employment permit applications for healthcare workers were prioritised to assist our health services in dealing with the pandemic.
My Department continued to deliver a wide range of services to businesses and the public against the backdrop of a significantly changed and challenging working environment. At the beginning of the pandemic we put in place a COVID-19 Business Supports Call Centre, which has now been established on a permanent basis as the Department’s new Enterprise Information Centre. We continue to provide critical inputs to the Government’s COVID-19 oversight group.
My Department has played a major role in preparations for Brexit and has delivered new and revised business schemes and regulatory changes and maintained constant communications with businesses on many important aspects of Brexit. I wrote to all businesses in Ireland to help them get Brexit ready and in late December I announced a €100m Brexit Scheme for the food processing sector.
Other priorities that my Department delivered included the development of an action plan for insurance reform, progressing employment rights issues, the launch of Call 3 of the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund.
I will continue working with the agencies of my Department on their priorities for the year ahead. The Deputy may be aware that in the last week IDA Ireland launched a new four-year strategy and Enterprise Ireland announced its strategic priorities for 2021.
My legislative priorities include establishing the ODCE as an independent agency, bringing forward anti-ticket touting and reselling legislation and giving more powers to the Competition Authorities to protect consumers and break up cartels.
In 2021 I plan to progress work on the introduction of a living wage and legislation to introduce a statutory sick pay scheme and reform of the examinership process.
I will be bringing my Department’s Statement of Strategy 2021-2023 to Government shortly, which will outline the high-level goals and actions that will be prioritised in the coming period.
