Results 22,541-22,560 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for raising this important issue. I agree that local authorities require greater flexibility in how they apply commercial rates. Perhaps a rates break could be given to new businesses. Distinctions could be made between different types of businesses on our main streets. Many such provisions are provided for in the commercial rates Bill, the heads of which were...
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: A number of other Bills are going through the Oireachtas at present. For example, Order for Second Stage and Second Stage of the Rugby World Cup 2023 Bill 2017 will be taken this week. In addition, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, will have the social welfare reform Bill ready and we hope to get that through before the recess. We are working on getting the Public...
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: What?
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I left the Bill in the Seanad over a year ago and it has not moved from there since.
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I think it is time for progress to be made on it. The Technological Universities Bill has been delayed. Following negotiations with the TUI - the union that represents the lecturers - it seems that 70 or 80 amendments need to be made to the Bill as a consequence of the agreement that has been reached. I am not sure if the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, wants to add...
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: No legislation is pending on that but I will ask the Minister, Deputy Creed, to contact the Deputies directly to answer their questions.
- Order of Business (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I read the agreement yesterday and I am due to speak to the Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, later this evening about this matter and the ongoing talks in Belfast. The agreement states the British Government's ongoing commitment to the Belfast Agreement but also states that the British Conservative Party is a unionist party, as if anyone did not know already. Just as that party asserts its...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. I have not had any direct contact or engagement with President Trump or the US Administration since my election as Taoiseach, although I have spoken to the chargé d'affaires by phone. However, I expect to receive a short phone call from President Trump later this afternoon. I expect this to be a brief congratulatory...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: To use the term "evil" is to employ very strong language. The Deputy would have more credibility if she used it in regard to other forms of evil, such as the Bolsheviks, who put people into gulags, set up a secret police-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: It is a fair response and------
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I have not yet had the phone call with President Trump but I am fairly sure that at some point in my interactions with him, assuming we are both still in office next March, we will be discussing LGBT rights. I will not shirk from raising issues such as climate change, LGBT rights and so on with President Trump.
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I guarantee that I do not expect-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I do not expect that I would ever get any kudos for exposing the far left. I am sure I would only get opprobrium. It is not very long ago that Deputy Coppinger and her Party were celebrating the Bolshevik revolution as one of the great events in history but what it led to, as we know-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I know the Deputy believes it was one of the great events in history. However, what it led to was the ending of a democracy because there was a democracy in place until the Bolsheviks----
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: There were democratic elections. Alexander Kerensky was democratically elected-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The Soviet Union ended democracy, established gulags, put people in concentration camps, set up a secret police, ended free speech and stopped all elections. However, the Deputy's view is that that was the greatest event in history.
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I intend to raise that the European Council met Thursday and Friday last and I and the other 27 European leaders present reaffirmed our commitment to the Paris climate change agreement. This will be the first time for me to speak to anybody representing the US Administration since my election as Taoiseach and I do not know how many issues I will have a chance to raise. To date, tax policy...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The phone call is at Mr. Trump's request to congratulate me on my election as Taoiseach. I am going to receive the phone call. Relations between Ireland and America are very important. They are going to go on long after Presidents, taoisigh and Governments change in both countries. They are relations that go back centuries. There are very important economic, cultural and family ties that...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I am not sure if I will have an opportunity to speak about it but I certainly do not agree with the travel ban imposed by the US Administration and I have no difficulty saying that if I have an opportunity to do so. Equally, even when there are governments with whom we do not agree, I generally believe that engagement is better than refusing to engage, and I would apply the same principles...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (27 Jun 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I absolutely accept Deputy McDonald's point that the United States does have a global reach and that makes it different from most other states, but I do not accept the hypocrisy that I see so often in this House of people turning a blind eye to oppression, execution, detention without trial, banning elections, free association and free speech-----