Results 24,241-24,260 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: As the House may be aware from these interactions, Deputy Adams writes me an awful lot of letters; he is a very prolific pen pal. It takes some time to reply to so many letters.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I will certainly reply to it in the normal course.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I have not had a chance to see it yet. He will receive an acknowledgement within two weeks and a full reply after that. Everyone is treated equally in that regard. I know the Deputy is a great believer in equality and so he would not want his letter answered any quicker than anyone else's-----
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----and it will not be. I am happy to confirm that the Government announced yesterday an extra €10 million for respite care. That will provide an additional 19,000 respite nights per year for people who need it, which is an important step forward, and nine new dedicated houses for respite will be established throughout 2018, with one in each community health area. The Minister...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: As I said in my earlier response, the Minister of State with responsibility for disability affairs, Deputy Finian McGrath, will produce the details of all of this in the next week or so, in part to do with the Health Service Executive, HSE, service plan for 2018 and then the operational plans which happen in the new year. When I mentioned examples of the incremental progress we are making...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I do not believe in that.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I believe in the philosophy of Prosser and Smith, and I believe in incremental progress. The first thing to do is to put the economy on a sustainable footing, balance the books and then deliver incremental social progress year on year in a way that is sustainable. That is something this Government is doing.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I am not involved personally in the negotiations in Brussels but it is Government policy that we want to introduce paid parental leave allowing parents to share the leave among themselves. Currently, maternity benefit and paternity benefit are separate. We would like to have a parental leave with parental benefit attached to it, which would allow parents to share it, and we will be guided...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: To be very clear about this, we already have paid parental leave but we do it in a particular way. We have maternity leave and maternity benefit for the mother and paternity leave and paternity benefit for the father. As a Government, we have increased the cash payment in the last budget and will increase it again in March. We also brought in new rules, particularly around premature...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I join Deputy Grealish in acknowledging the value of CE schemes. As Deputies, we are all familiar with them in our constituencies. As a former Minister for Social Protection, I am very familiar with them. I am also aware of the fact that the CE system was established by my party many decades ago. That is something of which we are very proud. Having established CE-----
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I do not believe Deputy Howlin is correct.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I will double check. We were certainly in government at the time in any event. It started off as a different scheme, called social employment, and then became community employment. CE has huge value. It has a duel value in that it provides employment and training opportunities for people, and also provides important community services as well. The number of people on CE schemes stands...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----the Labour Court finding was made not-----
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: It is very hard to answer questions in this House sometimes.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: As the Labour Court finding applies to the employer, and the State is not the employer, the Labour Court finding does not apply to the State. One thing that the Government and the House must always do is look out for taxpayers and respect them. If we were to take on the pension liabilities of people who are not public servants and who work for voluntary or private bodies, the impact on and...
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The same would apply to many fields of endeavour, many businesses and lots of work. There are many examples of where the Government sets the rules and regulations and designs the contract. However, that does not mean that the Government is then required to cover the pension liabilities of the people who work for the relevant body-----
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----or company.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: It is always open to individuals to make provision for their pensions-----
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----by paying into a pension fund or a personal retirement savings account, PRSA, and that, of course, is what public servants do. If one is a teacher or a civil servant and one works for the public service, one makes contributions to the public pension fund.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2017)
Leo Varadkar: Deputies may be aware that this issue is currently being examined by the community sector high level forum, which is chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The Departments of Employment Affairs and Social Protection; Health; Education and Skills; and Housing, Planning and Local Government are represented in this group, as are Pobal, SIPTU and IMPACT. The forum last met...