Results 23,241-23,260 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Reports (3 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The 2016 funding for the North East Inner City was not allocated for the implementation of the Mulvey Report which was published in 2017. Following the initiation of the work in the North East Inner City in June 2016, a number of short term measures were announced to meet some of the obvious immediate needs of the area. These measures included much needed physical improvement works to...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge absolutely that there are lots of shortcomings and problems and that plenty more needs to be done. This is something that will have to form part of the budget and the Estimates process. I am sure we will find additional funding for disability services next year, as we did last year. On behalf of the Government, I want to say that we are very much committed to improving the...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I assure the Deputy that I am just as interested in people with disabilities and their families as he is. I do not think any party in this House has a monopoly on compassion and I do not think any party in the House should claim to. I assure the Deputy that everyone on these benches, both Fine Gael and Independents, is doing their best to assist people with disabilities through constituency...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I do not accept that my response is complacent. I am just offering balance and accuracy and if I can acknowledge that there are failings and shortcomings, surely Deputy Martin should be big enough to acknowledge that there has been progress as well? Everything I itemised is genuine progress and has really happened. To mention the sort of thing that is being done in the budget this year,...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Genuine work is ongoing. I am willing to accept that there are shortcomings and-----

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----failings. More progress will be made and I guarantee the Deputy that more progress will be made in the years ahead but it is disappointing that the opposition is unable to acknowledge any progress that has been made, which is substantial, and I gave examples which are certainly not made up, and I encourage people to check them.

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: First, I am glad that Deputy Adams is watching my video messages. They seem to be having some traction, at least in terms of getting accurate messages across, not only to the public but also to opponents. I have intervened already. I met President Juncker in Tallinn specifically to talk about Mercosur. I met the IFA about it. Deputy Adams can be sure that many of those at the ploughing...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Adams can be assured that any trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur will have to benefit Ireland if it is going to pass the Government and this Parliament. Once again I detect an ambiguity in Sinn Féin's position towards the European Union. At present, Sinn Féin is campaigning against Brexit, it wants to keep Northern Ireland in the European Union and yet along the...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: We have free trade among ourselves. We have a customs union. We have a Single Market. We negotiate trade deals with other parts of the world-----

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----and we do so from a position of strength because we are the largest economy in the world with 500 million people and that allows us to negotiate beneficial deals with places, such as Canada, Japan and, at present, Mercosur. Sinn Féin really needs to decide whether or not it is a eurosceptic party because its position-----

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----is just an impossible contradiction. The party says that it does not want Northern Ireland to leave the European Union and that it is against Brexit and yet it consistently opposes what is fundamentally at the heart of the European Union, which is economic integration, free trade agreements with other parts of the world, a Single Market and customs union.

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Adams will be delighted to know that I am also an avid follower of his tweets.

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There is one thing-----

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----that I absolutely agree with Deputy Adams about and that is the success of our agrifood industry. Why is our agrifood industry successful? It is not because we produce for own market but because we export. It is trade, and free trade, that makes agrifood successful in Ireland. It is the fact that we trade so much with the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and increasingly, with...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I understand that the Bill is still under consideration. As to the appropriateness of any wording, I have not spoken to the Attorney General about it for some time so I will have to do so in the coming weeks and see where he is with it. I would point out, however, that any urgency on the referendum on the ownership of public water has gone. When Irish Water was set up as a semi-State...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I disagree with Deputy Collins's analysis of this. Irish Water is no longer a commercial entity. It requires a subvention from the taxpayer of €1 billion a year just to exist. Who is going to buy that? Nobody is. There are no plans and no realistic possibility of there being any privatisation of public water services in the future. The referenda which we have given an indicative...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: This, perhaps, would be a question better put to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection who would be more up to date on these details than I would be but I will try to answer the Deputy as best I can. First, there are two companies that have contracts under JobPath, one is Seetec and the other is Turas Nua. I am not sure what the UK company to which the Deputy referred...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have absolutely no doubt that there are individuals who have had bad experiences of these companies and that many of the complaints are genuine. Complaints are welcome and should be made. There is a system by which people can make them about issues to the companies and the Department after that. It is a couple of months since I was in the Department with responsibility for social...

Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to ask the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, to give the Deputy a full update, but-----

Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: To the best of my knowledge and recollection, the task force has been established and a personalised budgeting scheme has been piloted on a number of occasions. It is a tricky and difficult process because, essentially, it does not just involve giving an individual a personal account which he or she can use to purchase services he or she wants. It means taking money from the service...