Results 25,601-25,620 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am amused once again. When it comes to Question Time, it is always permitted for Opposition leaders to make political points-----
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----but it is never permitted for me to do so.
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I was drawing a contrast-----
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I was drawing a contrast between the Labour Party's alternative budgets and those it actually introduced. There was a considerable difference between them.
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Again, we heard one thing that was not quite correct. The cuts in weekly social welfare payments to lone parents, the disabled, carers, the blind, widows and jobseekers were all made by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government. Restoration of those weekly payments only started when Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independent Members took over Government two years ago.
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Getting to the substance of the question, we now spend €10 billion a year on education. That is more than ever before. It is €1 billion more than was being spent when this Government came to office. How have we spent that money? One cannot do everything one wants to in one year so one has to prioritise. We spent the money on new school buildings all over the country, 6,000...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am not in a position to make commitments about the forthcoming budget at this time. What I can say is that we have increased education spending by €1 billion over the past two years. We will continue to increase education spending into the next budget but it is not always possible to do everything in the one year. There only is a certain amount of money available.
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I understand this decision was made by the Charities Regulator, not the Government, and I assume the Charities Regulator would have taken the same approach or attitude had it been a pro-life or anti-abortion mural. I have no doubt but that the mural will appear elsewhere. Someone who owns a private building may wish to make the space available for the mural to be reinstated. Perhaps even...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am advised that on receipt of complaints made to the Charities Regulator about Project Arts Centre property, it indicated to the trustees of the Project Arts Centre that the continued display of this mural would, in its opinion, constitute a political advertisement in respect of a matter for which the charity was not set up. As I said earlier, I assume the Charities Regulator would have...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: What we need is proper independent information, like we are getting now from the Referendum Commission, which just started its work in recent days, and those of us who wish to advocate change going out there and speaking to people one to one, not berating them or preaching to them but listening to their concerns and answering their questions.
- Order of Business (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Statements on a leaked document when nobody even knows whether it is true-----
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Only preliminary work has been done on that legislation. It is being put together by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment but I do not have a date for publication.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: That Bill has been published. It is being piloted by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy O'Donovan, and is due to move to Committee Stage and Report Stage as soon as we are ready to proceed.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is to go to Committee Stage next. The legislation to regulate lobbying and ensure it is transparent was introduced in 2015. That was done by the previous Government, of which I was also a member. Obviously, we will have regard to any further recommendations from SIPO to improve the legislation further.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I do not have a date for that.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As I understand it, the rules around country of origin labelling are very clear. One has to put the country of origin on a product but producers may sometimes use clever branding to disguise where a product comes from and to mislead people, perhaps by using particular colours or names that people associate with one country. The best thing people can do is look at the label, which has to...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We had an extensive debate on this in the Dáil last week and the Minister, Deputy Creed, has introduced a number of measures to assist with the fodder shortage, including the implementation of a targeted fodder transport measure which was introduced back in January and has a budget of over €500,000.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I very much welcome the Deputy's suggestion. I will certainly speak to the Minister, Deputy Creed, later today as to whether it is possible to bring GLAS payments forward for the reason the Deputy suggests.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We have a national rare diseases strategy and a rare diseases office has been established to implement that strategy. I am not able to provide detailed information on those two particular conditions, so I will ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to reply in more detail, perhaps by correspondence. I should say that it is not the HSE's role to recognise or de-recognise illnesses....
- Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We certainly need more GPs to cope with a rising and ageing population and the increased demand for healthcare that goes with it. It is important to point out that we have never had more GPs. There are more GPs registered on the Medical Council's specialist register than ever before, and more GPs have a contract with the HSE under the general medical services scheme, GMS, than ever before.