Results 24,341-24,360 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together. Cabinet Committee B last met on 16 November. While the date of its next meeting is not yet scheduled, I expect it will be within the next few weeks. The committee oversees the areas of social policy and public service reform including education, children, social inclusion, the Irish language, arts and culture, and continued...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It started going down in 2007. There was no recession in 2007.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The matter of pension policy generally, and pension policy reform in particular, falls under the remit of this Cabinet committee and is on its agenda and work programme for this year. There are many pension anomalies, but the pension anomaly about which people most often speak is often not as well understood as it might be. The anomaly is that some people get a full pension after paying...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: That means giving people a full pension for paying contributions for 35 or 40 of the 50 years for which they could have worked. It is inevitable that such a change could cause some people to lose out while others gain.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: All of those things need to be taken into account in any change that may occur.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: By the way, these rules date from the 1960s rather than from 2012. A return to the pre-2012 situation would not correct this anomaly because the pre-2012 rules were unfair as well. There were people getting full pensions after working for just ten years while people who had worked for 30 years got 98% of their pensions rather than full pensions.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think we should mislead the public in this regard. It is certainly not practical to give people full pensions after paying in for just 20 years. Fundamentally, pensions have to be-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We are talking about contributory pensions here.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am trying to answer, a Cheann Comhairle. I assumed Deputy Howlin was referring to the State contributory pension.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I assumed he was not proposing to abolish the State contributory pension. Perhaps he was.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I would be totally opposed to any proposal from the Labour Party or anyone else to abolish the State contributory pension.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I would oppose any suggestion that people who have paid PRSI for many years of their lives should lose their pensions.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister for Finance has already expressed his intention to extend public sector workers' right to work to the age of 70. It will not be a requirement that everyone will have to work up to the age of 70. It is proposed to allow people who are currently required to retire at the age of 65 to work until the age of 66, or even until the age of 70 if they so wish. The Government has given...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The transitional pension was abolished by the last Government, of which Deputy Howlin and I were members.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I may have misspoken in December when I commented on the issue of the digital safety commissioner at a press conference. To the best of my recollection, the Government has not made a decision on whether to legislate to establish a digital safety commissioner. As I may well be incorrect in that regard, I will double-check it. I do not recall a Government decision being made. Obviously, any...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Dialogue (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 81 together. The Government acts collectively and any work done by a Minister within a Department is done with a whole-of-Government approach. A Programme for a Partnership Government sets out the Government's ambitious programme of work and shared aims and we will continue to deliver on this programme. The primary mechanism for ensuring a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Dialogue (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Reference was made to affordable housing. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, will be making an announcement on a new scheme and a revised scheme in the next days or weeks. That will come as welcome news to many people who do not qualify for social housing but who are unable to secure a mortgage because their income is higher than the social housing limit...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Dialogue (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I repeat that if NAMA were to get involved in the private rented sector or the private construction sector, that could constitute state aid. I want to make everyone aware of that as they develop policies in the coming months and years. Any such change could backfire badly on the State if suddenly NAMA was transformed into a body that was on-balance sheet or one that had to seek state aid...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Ministerial Dialogue (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: A total of 2 million people are at work now.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (16 Jan 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 7, inclusive, together. Cabinet Committee G was formally established by the Government last week and is scheduled to have its first meeting on Thursday. The Cabinet committee will provide political oversight of developments on justice and equality issues, including implementation of the Government's programme of reform for the justice sector as well...