Results 25,721-25,740 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Project Ireland 2040 Administration (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is not the policy of the State to own film studios.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Project Ireland 2040 Administration (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We see the role of the State as providing public services and infrastructure. To respond to the questions asked initially by Deputy Joan Burton, it is intended to place the national planning framework on a statutory footing, but I do not have a date in that regard. I understand primary legislation has to be passed first. I am not sure if it has yet been passed. However, the sequence...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Project Ireland 2040 Administration (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I try to get out of Dublin as soon as I can and around the country as much as I can. We will be following up this week on Project Ireland 2040 with an announcement of important flood relief works throughout the country. We hope to be able to start opening some of the funds this month - the urban regeneration fund and the rural regeneration fund - that are included in the national planning...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Project Ireland 2040 Administration (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----to north of Swords, serving Swords, Santry, Ballymun, DCU and the north inner city and all the way through to the southside.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Project Ireland 2040 Administration (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is a really good project and I look forward to seeing the completion of construction by 2027. On the specific issues raised by the Deputies, it affects Na Fianna, Scoil Chaitríona and Home Farm and I am very concerned. I share the concerns of leaders and other Deputies, not least the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, about the emerging preferred route which would do...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Strategic Communications Unit (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The estimate for spend to date for the SCU is €2.2 million. This spend is primarily associated with citizen focussed information campaigns such as: - Healthy Ireland - Global Ireland - Education Action Plan - Bliain Na Gaeilge - Self Employed Benefits - Legislation - Irish Aid - Project Ireland 2040 In addition, spend has been allocated to the Gov.ie migration, the citizen survey on...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Budgets (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: On 27 March 2018, the Government noted the comprehensive Review of the Operation of the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) completed by the Secretary General to the Government, and accepted its recommendations. Following the publication of the Review, I informed the House (and the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach) that the 2018 funding...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Government Information Service (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: GIS will continue to have a co-ordinating and supporting role for national, cross-Government communications, as has always been the case. Such campaigns will now be led and funded by the relevant line Department.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Strategic Communications Unit (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The citizen research will commence once the opposition parties have been afforded an opportunity to review the proposed material. It is anticipated that this review will be initiated in the coming weeks and the subsequent survey will issue in late May 2018. Once the survey has been run and results collected and analysed, it is intended to publish it.

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Once again, I want to say how deeply concerned and upset I and the whole Government are at the situation with which we are now grappling. We still do not know all the facts, and last night, as Members will be aware, new information was given to the Minister only a short time before he came into this House to make a statement and answer questions. He was put in the unenviable position of...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We will need a scheme of redress for women whose cancer was missed and should have been detected beyond normal error and for women where there was a breach of duty to inform them of the audit results. We will need to have a scheme of redress but we will need to establish the facts before we do that. The House will be aware that Dr. Gráinne Flannelly, the clinical director of...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: On the director general's contract of employment, his contract allows him to serve on boards if there is no conflict of interest, and with ministerial consent. There is no conflict of interest with this appointment as the company does not have a relationship with the HSE and it does not trade in Ireland. Also, the Minister in approving it was aware that Mr. O'Brien was coming to the end of...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: My experience, unfortunately, is that cock ups are more common than conspiracies and incompetence more common than collusion. Nonetheless, we need to restore confidence in cancer screening in Ireland and in CervicalCheck. As a result of this, there will be a statutory inquiry. We are inviting the spokespeople to meet this evening following the committee hearing this afternoon to discuss...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: In Ireland we have an 80% take-up rate of cervical screening. I really hope Deputy Mary Lou McDonald is correct and that this figure will not go down. I am, however, concerned that it will and that lives may be lost as a result. It is important that we get across the message again and again that cervical screening saves lives. In the past ten years there were some 50,000 anomalies...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate the Deputy's initial remarks and her acknowledgement that we do need a little time, calm and some facts before we make decisions on this matter. It is the intention of the Minister for Health after the hearings this afternoon to call together the health spokespersons for the main parties to discuss with them the appropriate form of inquiry that should take place with reference...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have any knowledge of it. My understanding is that these matters relating to the regulation of foster care and child protection were assigned to Tusla from the HSE in 2014, if not before that. This is a matter that falls to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. My Department does not have direct involvement in it but I will mention to the Minister that Deputy Connolly has...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Nobody in the Government, whether me personally, or anybody in this House, wants to see sick or terminally ill people dragged through the courts. Nobody wants to see prolonged legal cases going on for years. The public does not want that either. It is not in anyone's interest. It is not in the interest of taxpayers in the long run. It is not in the interest of the health service when it...

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: These issues are not new. Over the past ten or 20 years, there have been any number of Ministers for Health and any number of Ministers for Justice and Equality, bearing in mind that this concerns justice rather than health legislation. Any of those Ministers could have acted on these matters. I established the patient safety office and-----

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----am head of the Government which brought in legislation providing for open disclosure. Any number of Ministers for Health or Justice and Equality could have done those things in the past. We are the ones who did it - the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act, the Legal Services Regulation Act-------

Leaders' Questions (2 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: ------the Mediation Act and the establishment of the patient safety office. I went through the issue of open disclosure yesterday and am happy to do so again and explain it in detail. Open disclosure and duty of candour already form part of the guidelines of the Medical Council for ethical practice by doctors.