Neasa Hourigan
Question:10. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29297/23]
View answerWednesday, 21 June 2023
Questions (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:11. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29329/23]
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Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:12. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29523/23]
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Cian O'Callaghan
Question:13. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29567/23]
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Alan Dillon
Question:14. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29568/23]
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Gary Gannon
Question:15. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29338/23]
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Peadar Tóibín
Question:16. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29398/23]
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Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:17. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29544/23]
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Bríd Smith
Question:18. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29547/23]
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Paul Murphy
Question:19. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29550/23]
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Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:20. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29811/23]
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Christopher O'Sullivan
Question:21. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on economy and investment will next meet. [29762/23]
View answerOral answers (28 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 21, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on the economy and investment was re-established in January 2023 and met on 25 May.
The next meeting of the committee is not yet scheduled. The committee has a function similar to that of the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment, which met six times during the course of 2022. The membership of the committee comprises me, the Tánaiste, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and for Transport, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Other Ministers or Ministers of State will be invited to participate as required, as is the case with officials and advisers.
The committee oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments aimed at sustainable economic recovery, and investment in job creation, including through the implementation of Harnessing Digital, our national digital strategy. As with all policy areas, economic issues are regularly discussed at full Government meetings where all formal decisions are made.
There are potentially 12 Deputies offering on this topic. I ask Members to keep as tight as possible in their questionings.
Will the flagged idea of a sovereign wealth fund be on the agenda for the next meeting, as it is possibly one of the most important investments this Government will make? We have seen sovereign wealth funds perform very well around the world. However, they are now almost all engaged in an environmental, social and governance, ESG, framework, which acts very similarly to climate targets insofar as sovereign wealth funds have to be retro-engineered to be carbon neutral or zero carbon. Will the Taoiseach make any comment on whether the sovereign wealth fund will be on the agenda and whether a carbon-neutral version of it is intended?
I raise the case of Tara Mines and the 650-plus jobs under threat there. Are the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, at the table with Tara Mines? Have they met the company? SIPTU is in discussions with the management at Tara Mines. Specific requests have been made of the Government regarding direct support for energy costs. It was rumoured and reported that the Government is looking at a potential scheme in that regard. Has the Taoiseach an update on that?
I spoke earlier about the issue of geothermal. If it is feasible to carry out some of these schemes, we need to make sure we have a support scheme for renewable heat, SSRH, grant scheme in play. Have any thoughts been given since Deputy Brady's proposed legislation on the banning of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, which is obviously a State entity, from investing in companies involved in the annexation of Palestinian lands? The Government sounded somewhat receptive to coming up with a solution. I would like to see where that is at present.
The Taoiseach might not have been aware of this, but the Writers Guild of Ireland have been protesting in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike, essentially over streaming companies and film producers robbing them of their residuals or royalties for the work they do on films, which massively cuts into the income of writers and artists. This echoes issues I have raised in the House for years regarding the use of buy-out contracts by film producers in this country, which are funded by public money but are robbing writers, actors, performers and artists of their entitlement to royalties on the use of their intellectual property. The issue of security of employment is also part of the strike. I have also repeatedly raised, and it is now in the budget scrutiny report on section 481, the issue of the systematic, ongoing abuse of fixed-term workers' contracts by film producers which, again, are in receipt of public money.
Will the Government seriously address the recommendations on section 481 regarding these matters affecting film crews, actors and performers? As a former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, will the Taoiseach tell me who I, or the representatives of workers and performers, can talk to in the Department who deals with the copyright directive and fixed-term workers' legislation so we can engage and explain the issues? Clearly, the Government does not seem to understand those issues.
Any serious economy will depend on workers to function. This is why I keep raising the question of workers' rights, as I did this morning on the issue of Iceland workers who have been locked out of their jobs. I will raise another such issue, namely, that of the security workers who were awarded a relatively tiny increase in their pay more than a year ago, which has been blocked by the industry. Yesterday, that industry again had security workers in the High Court on the spurious grounds they were trying to block an employment regulation order, ERO, which I understand the Government is supporting and will defend. Will the Taoiseach give an update on what the situation is as regards advocating for those security workers, their absolute legal entitlement to that pay increase under the ERO, and the obscene way in which the industry is blocking giving them that pay rise? How can an economy expect to recruit and retain workers if this is how they are treated in this State?
I raise the issue of the Iceland workers. These workers have been treated abysmally since ownership of its stores in Ireland was transferred to a different company. They have been left without wages on occasion, without air conditioning in various of the company's shops, and many workers arrived at work this morning to find their jobs were gone and they were locked out of their own stores. One woman said she turned up to work this morning to no job, which is disgraceful after seven years of service. She is absolutely right. The workers in Iceland at Coolock are correct to occupy that premises to attempt to save their jobs. One of the interesting things is the company was in the High Court yesterday seeking the appointment of an interim examiner. Part of what was presented was that the company has €36 million worth of debts but €34 million of that is to the parent company. In other words, these are debts owed to the company itself and are not real debts to an external supplier. Will the Taoiseach support the workers in Iceland and the demand for the jobs to be kept?
Debenhams, here we go again.
Last week, the Minister for Finance signed a statutory instrument that repeals public access to the register of beneficial owners. That followed a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling last year that struck down the right to public access to the register of public ownership. This is a major blow to corporate transparency. Indeed, Transparency International Ireland described the ruling as "extremely worrying and might be the biggest setback for the fight against corruption, organised crime and tax evasion in Europe". Thankfully, the court's judgment advised that those with a legitimate interest in beneficial ownership, including journalists, should have a legal right to access that information. Media and civil society organisations have been using publicly available beneficial ownership registers since 2018, when EU member states were required to create them.
Will the Taoiseach confirm that the legislation the Minister signed last week will in no way limit the ability of journalists and other civil society organisations to access information on corporate ownership through the beneficial ownership register?
It was very positive to see our economy perform so strongly in recent years, despite ongoing geopolitical tension, inflation, and other challenging issues. Yesterday's World Competitiveness Ranking placed Ireland in second place behind Denmark. That should not be overlooked or taken for granted. We have a strong track record of competitiveness and in how we compete for foreign direct investment. We have seen record unemployment levels that are the lowest in the history of the State with thousands of jobs created throughout the country.
However, the economy ranked less well when it came to infrastructure, landing in 19th place. It is very important for our long-term competitiveness that we develop our infrastructure systems to provide sufficient housing, quality transport links, robust energy networks and the appropriate health and education services. I ask that any shovel-ready projects in the capital development plan and the national development plan, NDP, are prioritised over the next number of months and years. I also ask that the Minister on the NDP board prioritise these projects.
I voice my strong support for workers in the Iceland supermarket at Coolock, Dublin, who are sitting in this lunchtime to defend jobs. I also voice my strong support for all Iceland workers, many of whom found themselves locked out this morning following four months of total and disgraceful mismanagement by the new owners, who are arguably the biggest cowboys since the days of John Wayne and the Wild West.
The company was in the High Court yesterday to be placed in interim examinership and 344 jobs are at stake across the country, including 50 in Cork. Examinership is no friend of working people so I welcome the independent action of the Coolock workers. I hope their bold example to safeguard jobs is followed by Iceland workers in Cork and across the country.
I thank Deputies for their questions. Unfortunately, almost all the matters raised have not been considered by the Cabinet committee on economy and investment. That is fair enough. Notwithstanding that, I will do my best to answer the questions but I may have to come back to Deputies in writing with some replies because they do not relate directly to the work of the committee.
Deputy Dillon highlighted that Ireland is now ranked second in the world for competitiveness, just behind Denmark, which means we have gone up in the rankings. That is encouraging for the future prosperity of the country. He pointed out we need to continue to invest in infrastructure, one of the areas where we are not in the top ten. We would like to be in the top ten or 20 in most indexes. We have a rapidly growing population and because we became a relatively wealthy country relatively recently, in the past few decades, we have a deficit of infrastructure that we need to build. We have programmed an increase in capital spending next year of €1 billion on top of the spend for this year. In my conversations with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, he has been given the specific role of making sure the NDP happens more quickly and shovel-ready projects and those in the pipeline are advanced. It is a priority for me as Taoiseach to make sure that happens.
Deputy Hourigan raised the establishment of a new sovereign wealth fund. This will be in addition to our existing sovereign wealth fund, which is ISIF. It will be used to fund future investment in infrastructure and help to cover future liabilities when it comes to pensions and social care. We have not given consideration yet to an ethical framework around investment but will have to do that. The establishment of the new fund will require primary legislation so there will be an opportunity to stitch into that legislation a requirement for an ethical framework around investments, which I would support. The detail of that will have to be debated.
On Tara Mines, I understand an engagement is under way between SIPTU and the management. It is important we allow that to happen. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, is engaging with the company. The company assures us the mine will reopen. We want to make sure it reopens sooner rather than later and are willing to talk to the company about how to do that. There are limitations on what we can do. We want the mine reopened and those jobs restored and we are willing to engage with the company to help to make that happen.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised royalties. I commend him on his concern for the protection of intellectual property and the extent to which he is advocating that intellectual property be protected.
In this case.
That is the point I am making.
I know.
There is an inconsistency in the Deputy’s approach to intellectual property. He wants to protect some people’s property but not others.
I want to protect the workers.
It makes no sense to me because I want to protect everyone’s property.
It is a class issue.
On section 481, I will ask the Minister for Finance to reply on that. On the copyright directive, there is an official and a team in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Their names escape me but the Minister, Deputy Coveney, would be the main person to engage with on that.
And the fixed-term workers. Could the Taoiseach try to get me the contacts?
Yes.
Thanks.
On Deputy Bríd Smith’s question, I do not have an update on the security ERO, but we will defend it. That is our intention. That decision was made by the then Minister of State, Deputy English, with my support a year ago. I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, to provide the Deputy with an update.
On what is happening with Iceland, I do not know all the facts and want to be careful in what I say. On the face of it, it seems the workers are being very shabbily treated by the new owners. They have legal rights and it is important those are upheld, whether in the courts, the WRC or other bodies. We will work to make sure that is the case.
In relation to the beneficial ownership register, I think the answer to the question on the legislation is that there are no concerns for journalists. We will come back to Deputy Conway-Walsh with a more detailed reply.
On ISIF, the occupied territories and the companies, have we any update on finding a solution to that?
I do not but will ask the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, to come back to the Deputy.
I appreciate it.