Results 24,461-24,480 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There is a process to be followed and it is a complicated contract which must be tendered. Notwithstanding that, when the Government of Fine Gael and Independents came to office, approximately 52% of premises in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband, which figure is up to approximately 66% now. It will be 75% by the end of the year.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Notwithstanding the fact that we are struggling to get this contract sorted for those really important 500,000 premises, we are making progress.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The purpose of the Bill is not to restore the mobility allowance, it is to create a new form of transport support allowance which complies with all of the different stipulations. Work is under way involving the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure. I have asked specifically that the legislation be done this year so that we can factor it into the Estimates for next year.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am not aware of any specific proposals in that regard and will ask the Minister, Deputy Creed, to correspond with the Deputy.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is a huge problem. I have come across many cases in the course of my constituency work where subcontractors have been left unpaid. It is always a problem if a bill goes unpaid for any reason. That has an impact on the person or business whose bill is unpaid. The norm is for people to seek recompense through the courts, but that cannot be achieved if the company no longer exists or the...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is important legislation. Heads have been approved by Government already but we do not expect publication this session, unfortunately.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We expect the publication of the insurance Bill in the first three months of this year but, as is almost always the case, legislation cannot be retrospective.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Pretty much every country in the Western world has already ratified the convention and the Government is very committed to ratifying it, ideally next month. The majority of countries that have ratified it, just like us, have certain aspects of detailed legislation they have not finalised so we will not be out of line in any way in ratifying it with a few reservations and some legislation...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I will have to double check but I think Senator Bacik has legislation.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Next week so.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is a matter for the Citizens Information Board. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Doherty, to reply to the Deputy in more detail.
- Written Answers — Department of Defence: White Paper on Defence (24 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The 2015 White Paper on Defence sets the defence policy agenda over a ten year planning horizon and encompasses all work carried out by the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and Civil Defence. It comprehends the Government’s policy on defence of the State from armed aggression, the defence contribution to domestic security, the defence contribution to international peace and...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The HSE service plan is credible, provided it is adhered to. It is always a struggle for the Health Service Executive, most public bodies and Government agencies to remain within budget every year. The funding they would like to have to do what they want to do will always be lower than what can be provided by the Government through the taxpayer. As is always the case every year the HSE will...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The sum of just under €200 million is for new service developments. It is not for pensions. That is separate funding. We are ring-fencing the money specially and holding it back in the Department of Health to make sure the money is spent on what it is intended for and not lost in some deficit elsewhere. I refer to things like, for example, the extra €10 million for respite...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: If Deputy Martin submitted a freedom of information request on the correspondence between Ministers and Departments for every public body in the State, I guarantee him that every Department and agency asked for more money than they got. That is how the budgetary process works.
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: If we take all Departments and Government agencies together, they sought additional increases in spending of €12 billion last year.
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy O'Reilly for her opening remarks, which were very generous. I echo the sentiments she expressed concerning the important work of the Citizens' Assembly of just under 100 randomly selected citizens who studied this topic weekend in and weekend out and came to the conclusions they did, as well as the work of the all-party committee and all its members who studied the...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy knows, legal advice and the advice of the Attorney General to the Government are privileged and it is not the norm - it is in fact somewhat unprecedented - to produce legal advice. Legal advice inevitably argues from a position of "on the one hand, on the other hand" and gives different sets of opinions. The advice we will publish today is a summary of the advice of the...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am familiar with Accenture. I think it is a very good firm. It does a lot of important work in the private sector and has a lot of Government contracts as well. I think it had a contract in my former Department, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which I assume was tendered in the normal way. Public bodies should always follow public procurement rules, full...
- Leaders' Questions (30 Jan 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge that there have been irregularities in Garda finances. We saw it very evidently in the financial affairs of the training college in Templemore and we have seen it on a number of occasions in the non-collection of fees and fines. We see it in irregularities in how contracts are tendered for and awarded. We are in the process of implementing a significant programme of Garda...