Results 26,921-26,940 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 8, inclusive, together. A Programme for a Partnership Government was agreed in May 2016 during the formation of the Government. It is a five-year programme of work being undertaken for the duration of the present Dáil. The Government publishes progress reports on the programme each year, the second of which was approved by Cabinet in May 2018...
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies very much for their questions. The confidence and supply agreement is an agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It has no expiry date as such but it has always been understood to last three budgets. The budget is taking place next week. There is also provision for a review before the end of this year, and we are now very much into the fourth quarter of this...
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----in comparison with last year. There are more doctors working in our public health service than ever before. Pay restoration is happening across the public service for more than 100,000 people. All those things cost money.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Waiting times are falling. There has been a significant fall in the number of people waiting for angiograms or for operations or procedures on hips, eyes, knees, cataracts and skin lesions. The number has fallen by more than 10,000 since this time last year. The average patient is now waiting less than six months for those operations.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is because money is being spent-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----on the National Treatment Purchase Fund and other things, including both insourcing and outsourcing.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: That is having a result. Free GP care has also been extended to carers because carers need to be cared for too. Medical cards are now a right for children with profound disabilities who are in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance regardless of their parents' income. That was resisted in the past but this Government decided to do it. Additional hospital beds are also being provided....
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----there have been fewer people waiting on trolleys. The nurses' figures suggest that was true last month, but not for the other months. Certainly hundreds of people fewer were spending time on trolleys this summer compared with last. These are among the reasons the Department of Health is running over budget. On tax, it is important to give the full picture. The Comptroller and...
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Approximately 30% of people, those on the lowest incomes, pay no income tax at all. He says that it is certainly not fundamentally flawed but that it does give rise to issues around so-called high-worth individuals. The Government is going to examine loopholes and reliefs to see what we can do to close any legal loopholes that are being abused or to take away reliefs that are allowing...
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----because he makes his income in the US. There would be many examples of people-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: That is just one obvious example of someone who owns property or has wealth in Ireland and who does not pay income tax here because he does not earn any income in Ireland and lives in a different country. He earns his income elsewhere. It is important that we not be misleading about these things.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There is also a difference between wealth and income. It is possible to own land or a business that is worth many billions of euro and not derive-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----an income-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I do take issue with those comments. We touched on this earlier. I am not deliberately avoiding answering questions. The Ceann Comhairle has written to us all and asked us to keep to time. I am obeying his-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I know some of this is parliamentary pantomime from the Opposition.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: To say that I go off on tangents in my answers-----
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: All any reasonable person has to do is look at the questions that are put to me and then look at the tangents that other people go off on.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputies are only accusing me of doing things they do themselves.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The public deserve a better quality of accountability than they are getting.
- Ceisteanna (Atógáíl) - Questions (Resumed): Programme for Government Review (3 Oct 2018)
Leo Varadkar: That is not down to me. It is down to poor Opposition.