Results 26,701-26,720 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I met with Pope Francis during his visit to Dublin Castle on Saturday 25th August. The meeting provided an opportunity for both of us to discuss a number of issues, though regrettably not in any great depth because of the short duration of the meeting. I welcomed Pope Francis who thanked me for the warm welcome he had received on arrival. We spoke of the legacy of pain and suffering caused...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committee Meetings (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The next meeting of Cabinet Committee D has not yet been scheduled. As I have previously indicated to the House, the Committee works to ensure a coordinated approach to the delivery and ongoing development of policy across the areas of infrastructure investment and delivery, housing, and climate action. There is significant work underway across each of these areas. Cabinet...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Ministerial Advisers Data (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Details of the politically appointed staff employed by my Department and acting in an advisory capacity are as follows: Name Role Commencement Date Cessation Date Brian Murphy  Chief of Staff 14 June 2017 n/a John Carroll Head of Policy and Programme Implementation  05 July 2017 n/a Patrick Geoghegan Special Adviser to the Taoiseach  14 June 2017 n/a Angela Flanagan...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Communications (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: My Department provides a LoCall phone number to those who may wish to avail of it. It is an 1890 number and it is not the primary contact number for my Department. This is made clear on my Department's website, through my Department's various entries in publicly available telephone directories, and through Internet search engines. Where the LoCall number is published on my Department's...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: State Visits (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The visit by Pope Francis in August included a number of large scale events which were open to the public to attend. Thousands of people were expected to attend the Shrine at Knock and Mass in the Phoenix Park as well as lining the streets of Dublin to see the Pope. The involvement of many of the State's agencies in these events was to ensure the security, health and safety of the...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committee Meetings (18 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I have chaired three Cabinet Committee meetings since June 2018. Cabinet Committee B (Social Policy and Public Services) met on 7 June, Cabinet Committee C (European Union) on 21 June and Cabinet Committee A (Economy) on 9 July.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Ceann Comhairle. First, I am very proud and pleased to have been a member of a party, and of a Government, that enshrined children's rights in our Constitution, and did so for the first time. In the years since then, we have been doing everything we can to realise those rights and to make them real in our laws and society and not just in the words in our Constitution. Taking...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: A record €10 billion is being invested in education this year. In the health area, children with profound disabilities, 40,000 of whom are in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, now have a medical card as of right. They do not have to be means-tested based on their parents' income. When the party opposite was in power children, even though they had profound disabilities,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Of course I get it and everyone on this side of the House gets it. The Deputy and his party do not have a monopoly on either empathy or compassion.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: All of us do constituency work and all of us have friends and family. All of us are aware of plenty of individual cases on which all of us work hard to try to get results for parents. Instead of coming in here trying to pretend that somehow he has a monopoly on understanding or a greater empathy or compassion than people on this side of the House, the Deputy could come in here with...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----but he did not do that in either of his contributions. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is working extremely hard on this. There is a large budget of €1.8 billion for disabilities. As I mentioned, we are putting in the procedures and recruiting the extra staff we need.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I, as Taoiseach, and everyone in this House understands the depth of the housing crisis, whether for a generation of people who are renting, who want to buy but struggle to put together a deposit or find a property to buy or for people waiting years for council houses or for people who have to spend time in emergency accommodation. I agree with Deputy McDonald on one point, which is that the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----a speech or a single item of legislation, we would of course do that. It has not been seven years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Let us not forget that of those seven years we spent the first four rescuing the country, taking it back from the brink, putting our public finances back in order-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----and getting people back to work. We were opposed at every step along the way by Sinn Féin.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The first four of those seven years at least were spent putting this country back in a position where we could afford to invest in housing, infrastructure, healthcare and transport again. We are now in that position. It is not possible to ramp these things up overnight. No number of soundbites, easy solutions or one-line amendments will do anything like that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: This is the kind of progress that is being made. New building is picking up. People can see that now all around the country particularly in the city of Dublin.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: There were 14,000 new homes built last year and behind that number there are 14,000 individuals and families who moved into a new home last year, a new house or new apartment, and in many cases freed up other properties for other people to live in. That was a 50% increase on the year before. We estimate that this year, approximately 20,000 new homes will be built, particularly if one...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We had double-digit increases in those zones before the rent pressure zones were brought in. That is not the case now.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Sep 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The old tactics of Sinn Féin have not changed. Their tactics are just to shout us down.