Louise O'Reilly
Ceist:1. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he is aware of the specific barriers that women founders of technology companies face in accessing State supports. [44353/23]
Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Enterprise Support Services
Is the Minister aware of the specific barriers women founders of technology companies face in accessing State supports? Will he engage with the sector directly and with the stakeholders to address these issues? The issues are many and varied, but a direct engagement would be incredibly beneficial.
I thank Deputy O’Reilly for raising this issue.
Increased female participation in our workforce is vital for our economy and, in the interests of our society, we need to ensure women can realise their full entrepreneurial potential.
This is an issue on which the Government is focused. In fact, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, as late as last week, met an organisation called TechFoundHer. I have also met a number of organisations on this issue to discuss how to address some of the barriers that women technology - tech - founders face. These include under-representation, access to existing networks, access to capital, and mentorship and role models.
While these are not issues unique to Ireland, my Department, through Enterprise Ireland, has been working to promote greater gender diversity in the technology sector and improve access to supports for women founders. Over the past decade, Enterprise Ireland has focused on increasing the number of women founding high potential start-ups and much progress has been made on this. In 2011, for example, only 7% of Enterprise Ireland-backed high potential start-ups at first seed stage included women founders. By putting a spotlight on this untapped potential and providing capability and funding supports specifically targeting women founders, by 2022 the share of Enterprise Ireland high potential start-ups with women founders has more than trebled to 37%.
Gender is built into the reporting requirements for all seed and venture capital funds that are supported by Enterprise Ireland now. I am pleased to report that 70% of the seed and venture capital funds that Enterprise Ireland supported have women at partner-investment manager level, which is a huge change from where we were ten years ago. Enterprise Ireland partners with the Irish Venture Capital Association for an annual series of events to bring female founders together on the topic of raising capital and linking to venture capital funders through workshops and networking events. Furthermore, programmes such as Going for Growth, New Frontiers and Leadership 4 Growth are available to women across Ireland and have significant results in women starting and scaling businesses across all sectors.
I understood the figure to be 27%. The Minister states it is 37%, but it does not matter. It is still not 51%. There we are. Women make up 51% of the population. I acknowledge the progress but the Minister should also acknowledge that there is a huge amount of work left to be done.
I have spoken with stakeholders in the area. Some of this, unfortunately, is only anecdotal evidence but I accept the women's bona fides on this, as I am sure the Minister will as well, when they speak about the barriers they face. The unfortunate fact is that much of this discussion is not data driven. Does the Department have the statistics for start-ups with women-only founder teams? It is not enough to have a woman on the board or to have a woman in the room. We are talking about women founders and women leaders in this area. They have told me directly that they have faced barriers similar to those that many women face, but this is an area where there should be a real focus.
Would the Minister give a commitment that the Department will collate and publish the data on the number of successful applicants and the share of public funding for mixed founder teams, for women-only teams and for men-only teams? It is essential we look at the number and range of applications and extrapolate where women are leading, not only where women are involved. These are women founders and they are telling me directly they are facing barriers. We cannot know the extent of that until the data is collated, and I would appreciate that commitment this morning.
I have no problem trying to collate more data and publishing it. The motivation here is probably the same on this side of the House as on the Deputy's. I have met a number of groups that are specifically focused on providing more angel funding, for example, through female angel funders, and more venture capital, VC, for women founders. I have met a number of women in business groups to discuss how we might do that.
Clearly, although we have made significant improvements over the past decade or so, there is still a lot of work to do. I do not want to suggest that we are where we want to be in this space; we are not. We still hear a lot of frustration from women entrepreneurs on a range of levels, but particularly around access to funding. That is something we need to address.
In relation to the Deputy's request, I will talk to our teams about what information we have and how we can improve that information flow. We are happy to make any of that available. There is no problem.
With regard to the barriers that women founders of tech companies face in accessing State support, I refer to something that is happening in California. The Governor, Mr. Gavin Newsom, has signed into law Senate Bill 54 which will require venture capital firms in the state to annually report the diversity of the founders they are backing. It is very specific. It is looking directly at the founders.
I welcome the fact the Minister of State has engaged with TechFoundHer. I would encourage him to keep that engagement going to listen because, in the absence of hard data, anecdotal evidence is incredibly compelling.
Would the Minister give consideration to legislation of the same nature? It is a sad day if the United States are leading on an issue like this. Would the Minister give consideration to similar legislation that would almost mandate diversity within the sector because, I believe, the talent and enthusiasm is there? The women are there but we know all of the barriers - cannot see, cannot be, etc. I believe it requires a State intervention to break down some of those barriers.
I am not sure what the Deputy means by saying it is a sad day when the US is leading. The US leads in many areas. We try to lead in many areas too.
Clearly, this is an area where we have made significant improvements but we are not where we need to be. That is why we need to encourage more young girls as well as women into tech and tech-based subjects through education. There are a number of programmes we support, from iWish to other innovation programmes that get young girls thinking at a much earlier stage, and indeed their parents, about the kind of careers they may pursue.
The reality is the future of the Irish economy is digital and tech based. We want to ensure our education system is fit for purpose in that regard and that girls and women are not disadvantaged in their career choices because of the subjects they may choose at a much earlier age. We need to ensure the agencies of the State, in particular Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise offices, are doing everything they can to promote the role of women in the tech industry. There is a lot of talent there and I have met many female founders myself. We need to make sure they get equal access to funding and that we publish data which highlight problems so that we can solve them.
Wage-setting Mechanisms
Louise O'Reilly
Ceist:2. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has plans to future-proof sectoral employment orders, employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements, REAs, in response to increases in the minimum wage. [44354/23]
The sectoral employment orders, employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements are an essential part of the industrial relations make-up of the State. They are routinely and regularly challenged in the courts and that renders them, in some cases, ineffective. Is the Minister of State aware of any plans or discussions to future-proof them, by which I mean against those challenges specifically in the context of the rising rates of the minimum wage, as it comes closer to the sectoral employment rate?
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 rates of pay and conditions for workers in a specified sector. The order is drawn up by a joint labour committee through a process of voluntary collective bargaining. In this case, the worker and employer representatives at the joint labour committee will bargain on the basis of the economic conditions in place for the sector at the time, including the legal minimum wage provisions.
Second, a registered employment agreement, REA, is a collective agreement between a trade union and an employer which covers the pay or employment conditions of specified workers. An REA is registered with the Labour Court and is only binding on the parties that subscribed to it, such as the worker, employer and trade union. As is the case with an ERO, the parties negotiating the agreement will do so on the basis of the specific conditions applicable to them, including minimum wage conditions.
Third, a sectoral employment order is made following a request to the Labour Court to review issues such as the pay, pension or sick pay scheme for workers in a particular sector. The request to the Labour Court can be made separately or jointly by organisations that substantially represent employers or workers, including trade unions. When conducting such an examination, the Labour Court will invite representations to be made to the court from any interested parties. These parties may submit evidence on the impact of the national minimum wage on their sector to the court if they so wish. Under law, the Labour Court must “have regard to the terms of any relevant national agreement relating to pay and conditions for the time being in existence” when making its recommendation.
In each of these cases, we are setting the minimum wage in these sectors. This is the floor and not the ceiling. In many of these sectors, taking construction as an example, where I recently accepted a Labour Court recommendation for a new SEO, this saw the minimum wage in the sector rise to between €19.35 to €21.49 an hour. That is clearly greater than the new minimum wage approved this week of €12.70.
The Government strongly supports Ireland’s industrial relations wage-setting mechanisms. I believe collective bargaining is an important element of ensuring industrial relations stability in Ireland. While minimum wage setting mechanisms should not replace traditional collective bargaining between autonomous employee and employer representatives, they play an important role in strengthening industrial harmony.
I commend the work of the trade union movement and all it does in bringing these agreements and orders into place. A lot goes into the discussion only to have an employer swan into court, who has not been part of the negotiations or any other part, and challenge it.
Recently, a challenge was withdrawn by the security industry. The increase in the minimum wage will bring it to €12.70. The ERO rate for security workers was only going to be €12.90. It was very cheap for them to withdraw that. Unfortunately, that leaves workers in the security industry who have their employment order very close to the minimum wage in a situation where it does not mean that much to them. I am asking that consideration be given to ensuring that when the minimum wage moves, the relativity is maintained. It is easy to talk about sectors where the wage is more than €20 but that is not so for these workers who are sailing very close to the national minimum wage. The relativity that would have been there is now eaten up by the increase in the minimum wage.
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 not the ceiling. We want to see the average wages in those sectors, like construction, moving so much higher that they are not trying to get €12.70 or €12.90 an hour but are far greater. Third, on relativity, it goes both ways. These are always open to renegotiation and for new orders to be brought in. The Government stands ready with the agencies in the State to work with employees and their trade union representatives, but equally with employers, to move with the need. We are in an extremely tight labour market and employers and employees know the need to move wages up to reflect that.
Tuesday saw the mechanical SEO struck down. It is greed that is motivating this. The Minister of State says it is the minimum but for many workers it is what they will get. It may be a minimum and there may be an aspiration towards a higher wage but it does not happen. For these workers, the minimum, which is their wage, will be set and it will be struck down. The Minister of State should be under no illusions. It is greed and only greed that is motivating employers to go down to the courts. We are not talking about large sums of money or workers who are making vast sums.
Where there is movement in the minimum wage and the relativity is not respected, it becomes meaningless. It is €12.90 for the workers and €12.70 in the minimum wage, a 20 cent difference for workers who are doing work for which they are trained, skilled and regulated. Workers in the security sector are very heavily regulated, yet they see an employer who was not at the table being allowed to withhold from them a very modest pay increase. The threat has been withdrawn but when the minimum wage increase comes in, they will find themselves better off by 20 cent an hour for semi-skilled work which is highly regulated.
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 of cases. There is always the option for parties to take legal challenges and we have to respect that and we have to respect their motivations. The Deputy might say it is greed but it is not always that. We must respect that it is their democratic entitlement and there is no point in dismissing it.
The Deputy mentioned the SEO that was knocked down this week. We will look to get a new SEO in place for that sector as quickly as possible and in a robust manner.
I return to my original point that the State is strongly supportive of these SEOs. They work well for workers and employers alike and we will continue to facilitate their progressive movement being reflective of any increases in the minimum wage or otherwise.
Work Permits
Richard O'Donoghue
Ceist:3. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the length of time it is taking to issue work permits (details supplied), given that businesses are struggling to recruit workers. [44606/23]
Businesses are struggling to get workers. What is the status on the times it is taking to issue permits given employers are experiencing labour shortages which are having financial impacts on businesses?
Ireland operates a managed employment permits system, maximising the benefits of economic migration and minimising the risk of disrupting Ireland’s labour market. The regime is designed to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills or labour shortages in the State in the short to medium term. In framing policy, consideration is given to other instruments that are also available in meeting skills shortages challenges, such as upskilling and activation of people who are unemployed.
Following an internal plan of action which increased resources and implemented efficiency measures, the employment permits unit has significantly reduced the processing time for employment permit applications compared with last year when waiting time had peaked at 21 weeks. The current processing time for new employment permit applications is much shorter than that, at about 18 days, or, if it is on the critical skills list, at about 16 days.
My Department works with other Departments to provide an integrated approach to address labour and skills shortages in the longer term. My Department actively responds to concerns raised by various sectors about skills supply shortages, as evidenced by several amendments to employment permits regulations over recent years, in which the sectors most impacted by skills shortages were provided with access to employment permits, including in agriculture and the agrifood sector.
The occupational lists - ineligible occupations list and critical skills occupation list - for employment permits are subject to evidence-based reviews incorporating consideration of available research and a public consultation, which provides stakeholders with an opportunity to submit data on skills or labour shortages. Submissions to the review are considered by the interdepartmental group on economic migration policy, with membership drawn from relevant Departments, which may provide observations on the occupations under review.
My Department is currently engaging with other Departments, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to consider submissions received in the last most recent public consultation to review the occupations lists which ran from June to August this year. We got more than 100 submissions during that process. I hope we can finalise the new choices we will make, I suspect by the middle of next month.
I thank the Minister for his reply, but as much as I take what he read into account, it is not factual. Permits are coming through our offices at the moment and we are dealing with people. We are in the third month of dealing with some of them. They have been delayed. We contact the offices and they say they are being processed. The Minister said it was 18 days, or 16 days for critical cases. Sections of the hospitality sector have critical employment they need to fill, as do the agri sector and transport. They tell us they need these people and we are told it is being processed. It might just be my office but I do not think so because the people in my office are very efficient and work on this weekly. They get great turnarounds with certain cases but the timeline is causing this big problem. All we are told is that it is being processed.
With respect, it is not the Deputy's office that will turn them around, it is the work permits system. Of course, any Deputy's office has the right to ask questions as to the status of the applications. Last year, this took months; it now takes a short number of weeks. There may be problems with individual applications. It may be the case that some work permits need extra consideration, they may be turned down or may not be on the critical skills list. If they are not on the critical skills list, there may be other issues that delay applications. I do not know the individual cases about which the Deputy is concerned, but I know that many businesses are under pressure waiting for work permits to be sanctioned. The Deputy is right about that. We have to try to deliver as efficient a system as we can.
We have significantly increased resources for the work permits section. It is a much more efficient system now than it was a year ago. The Deputy should not forget that when many people apply for work permits, they also have to apply for visas because they come from parts of the world that require a visa to come to Ireland. My Department has no control over the timeline for visas; it is the Department of Justice. We hope that both the Department of Justice and my Department can work together for a single application process that would secure a person a visa as well as a work permit. That will take longer because of the security issues around visas and so on. It depends on where people come from and whether they are on the critical skills list. They will determine the timelines, I suspect.
The Minister got it right. From what he just said, he is now looking at a commonsense approach. In other words, the visa is through the Department of Justice and his Department. If they can work together, rather than working in two separate Departments, and do applications together, it would speed up the process of getting people in who need a visa for their permits. That seems to be the major problem. When it comes to visas and permits, it goes to one route, then the other and it takes too long. It would be nice if they worked in tandem and came together on applications that will help critical employment into the country. The people helping this country at the moment are students coming here for education and languages. They can only work 20 hours a week and they find the cost of living very high. During peak season, they can work 40 hours. They are the ones actually helping us at the moment in the hospitality sector to try to keep it going. I agree with what the Minister said. I look forward to seeing both Departments working together to help this situation speedily.
I thank the Deputy for responding in a constructive way. It is not straightforward to streamline a work permits process and a visa process. What the Department of Justice has to do around visas in terms of security checks and so on can be quite complicated and time consuming. It relies on authorities in the countries people come from and, therefore, it does not always control the timelines in terms of responses. It is not straightforward but we have had initial discussions between the two Departments in terms of trying to streamline that system.
Last year, we signed off on almost 40,000 work permits. This year, the number is similar - it might be 38,000. We are getting through them quickly. There are complications when it comes to visas. We are currently in an economy that is beyond full employment. There are lots of sectors, in particular the hospitality sector but also agriculture, agrifood and construction, in which many vacancies need to be filled. We need to do that by reskilling and upskilling Irish people and making sure others from other parts of the European Union and our Single Market can come and fill those gaps. If that is not possible, we also have to have a streamlined process around bringing in skilled workers from abroad. As I said, we did that for 40,000 people last year and it will be a similar number again this year.