Results 27,541-27,560 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The percentage of jobs created outside the Dublin region is more than 60%. The majority of jobs created in recent years has been created outside of Dublin. Unemployment is down in every county, including Kerry. It is down by approximately half in Kerry and employment is up. I am not sure task forces create jobs but we have the rural fund and urban fund and I strongly encourage people who...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is not here today. I know there is an ongoing discussion at the beef forum involving the industry, the IFA, other farm organisations and the Department as to what can be done to make sure farmers get a fair price and incomes are protected.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not mean this in any way to be critical but it is important to look at the numbers and not the headlines. If we look at the numbers they show well over 60% of jobs created in recent years have been created outside of Dublin. The lowest unemployment is now in the Border counties and the second lowest unemployment is in the south west, which is the Cork and Kerry region. To give some...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid I do not have any information on this at present but I will certainly make the Minister, Deputy Ring, aware of the fact the Deputy has raised it and I will ask him to provide a written answer to the Deputy on the progress being made. I certainly share the Deputy's sentiments. The development of greenways and walkways throughout the country has opened it up to recreational...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: That is a good suggestion. The cameras are not popular because they work. They are effective because they pick up the average speed somebody travels at over a stretch of road rather than just the speed at the spot check or the moment-in-time speed check one gets with a GoSafe van. I will inform the Ministers concerned that the matter was raised and ask them to examine it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Government does not sanction individual beds in hospitals. We have sanctioned a very big increase of approximately €1 billion in health spending for next year, but the sanctioning of individual budgets for hospitals or parts of hospitals is carried out at either HSE or hospital group level. This morning, once again, there is an enormous variation in overcrowding. There is zero...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Neville for raising the important issue of climate change and I thank him and his colleagues for attending the launch this morning. We must do many things to rise to the challenge of climate change. They will include investment, policies on tax and regulation and lifestyle change. The first allocations under the climate fund were announced earlier. Essentially, what is...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The cost for any social media advertising undertaken in 2019 will be met from my Department's administrative budget. Costs incurred are expected to be significantly less than the spend on digital advertising in 2018 which is estimated at approximately €450,000. The expenditure referenced relates to a number of major cross-Government public information campaigns that the Department...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to reassure the Deputies that the €2 million referred to in that particular article was not spent on promoting me or Fine Gael; it was spent on campaigns such as those I outlined earlier. They were campaigns such as Healthy Ireland, which is all about encouraging people to take those little steps that could improve their physical or mental health such as giving up smoking,...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: To be very honest with Deputy McDonald, I do not know who took that photograph and I do not know if any public money was expended by the taking of the photograph. It is possible that Senator Mulherin got somebody to take the photograph for her on her phone, in which case no public money was-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I will check into that. I will have that taken down. I do not know which website it is on but I will certainly check into it. We need to be realistic about this. Deputies and Senators who are not Ministers, including those from the Opposition, turn up at Government announcements-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----as do candidates. I am not sure.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It might be overkill for me to issue an instruction that anybody who is not a Minister, including Opposition Deputies, be airbrushed out of any photographs that appear on a Government website. In fairness, that is not what the Deputy is suggesting-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----but if we were to take what she is claiming to its natural extension, what she would want us to do would be to airbrush out from any photograph on merrionstreet.ieor any Government website pictures of people who are not Ministers, including of herself or her colleagues. I just think that would be overkill. I appreciate that she needs to find something to raise and I will certainly look...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: They chose them by their own volition so that is a false allegation-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----and it should not be repeated.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Both editors have confirmed that they chose the photographs and were not told or asked to pick any particular photographs.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: On the video for the UN Security Council campaign, I understand it was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade so the Deputy would need to raise that with the Tánaiste.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Advertising Budgets (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know the answer. The Deputy can raise it with the Tánaiste. He will be here tomorrow.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to answer questions Nos. 2 to 4, inclusive, together. I visited Derry city on Friday 26 October, where I had several engagements. I was pleased to visit the Apprentice Boys headquarters and museum where I enjoyed a tour of the museum. I also had the opportunity to meet the chairman of the management committee, Mr. William Moore, and some of his colleagues. I then visited...