Results 23,121-23,140 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding people awaiting outpatient appointments, it is important to have a fuller understanding of what waiting lists and waiting times mean. More than half of people, who are now waiting either for an outpatient appointment or for surgery, wait less than six months. By the way, I do not think six months is anything to be proud of, but it is important to point that out. About a third of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----for individuals is how long they wait.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It would actually be possible to have greater numbers on waiting lists, but people waiting less time.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The key thing to look at is the number of people who have been waiting more than three months or more than six months as the case may be. It is encouraging that in August we saw a fall of 2,000 in the number of people waiting for inpatient operations and day-case procedures. It appears that traditional funding for the HSE and the dedicated funding for the NTPF had an impact on that. I...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, together. Communications is an essential part of effectiveness of any modern organisation. That is particularly true of Departments and public service bodies in all countries, given the impact of their activities on the lives of citizens. That is why communications should be treated as a strategic, whole-of-government activity which...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy can rest assured that there will not be anything like that.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I think I have seen her on a bus though.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It is a little bizarre to hear Deputy McDonald talk about the absolute commonality between my party and the British Conservatives and then to talk about Brexit. My party is and has always been a very pro-European party that is committed to European integration. Up until very recently Sinn Féin wanted Ireland to leave the European Union. It opposed our entry into it and has...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: At least when it comes to issues such as European affairs the euroscepticism of the Sinn Féin Party very much mirrors the euroscepticism of the British Conservative Party.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am also a little bit amused to hear Deputy Burton refer to my love of the media and their love of me. On the rare occasion that I open the Sunday newspapers and flick through them I do not feel that they love me or that I love them for that matter.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will move on and answer some of the questions. My view is that communication is a virtue. Citizens have a right to know what their Government is doing.. They have a right to know the full story about what is going on and they also have a right to know how taxpayers' money is spent. There is huge fragmentation out there. One needs to just think of the number of different Departments and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: That is the kind of thing that we want to change, to move away from that fragmentation. It is something that has been done in Holland, where they took 200 different logos and identities and moved them into one so that people knew what was part of central government and what was not. It is something as well that they have done in Britain where they have saved money overall in having a single...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In terms of the kind of information that may be of interest to Members, if they look at the total communication and marketing spend across Government it runs to about €170 million a year. A lot of that is totally legitimate. It includes the tourism marketing fund for Tourism Ireland. It also includes Bord Bia promoting Irish food abroad. It further includes public health messages...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I would like us to have a single central government identity so that people know what central government is and what it is not, what it is doing and what it is not, and what it is responsible for. I believe there is a deficit there and that deficit can be best addressed by being much more strategic in the way that we let people know what we are doing as a Government. It was absolutely my...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, absolutely it was my idea to establish it but, obviously, it is a Civil Service unit so the staffing was done by the Secretary General.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I suggested the head.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, but I did not suggest any other staff and I have not been involved in tenders for research or making any particular decisions on staffing. In terms of the question on the subhead, the subhead is obviously the administration subhead of the Department.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It is not my role to decide how units are staffed within the public and Civil Service.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Those are not points of order by that way.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Government Information Service (27 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will not be so presumptuous as to tell you how to do your job, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, but it is of course within your authority to rule them out of order.