Results 27,561-27,580 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

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

Leo Varadkar: I concur with Deputy Micheál Martin. Mr. Mark Durkan very much deserves his honours. He was a very effective politician as a Minister and an MP. He is an able persuader and a witty and articulate parliamentarian. He made a very thoughtful but also very witty speech on the night. I regret that he lost his seat because it has left the city of Derry unrepresented in Westminster, which...

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

Leo Varadkar: The Tánaiste, the Secretary of State and I have some thoughts as to how we might proceed and how we might try to make another attempt to get the parties together and get an Executive and assembly up and running. Outlining that on the floor of the House with everyone listening is probably not the most conducive way to get an outcome. I will have a follow-up meeting with the assembly...

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

Leo Varadkar: -----who would be a senior republican, if I might put it that way. Among the documents uncovered in the inquiry was an email from Mairtín Ó Muilleoir to Ted Howell, a senior republican who held no elected office whatsoever, asking if he would be content for Mr. Ó Muilleoir to "sign off the business plan on Wednesday". That is documentary evidence that Sinn Féin Ministers...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Brexit Issues (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 10, inclusive, together. I spoke by phone to the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, on 5 November, when we discussed the current state of the Brexit negotiations. We both emphasised our commitment to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and the need to make sure that we had a legally operable backstop. The Prime...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Brexit Issues (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I think what I said in the Dáil yesterday or previously is that no Government can be fully prepared for a no-deal Brexit, not us, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium or anywhere. However, we will be as prepared as we can be and that involves the hiring of Revenue and customs officials, which is very much under way, for our ports and airports. It involves the hiring of veterinary...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Brexit Issues (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The interests of the whole island will be protected. I am sincere about that and I mean it. No matter what happens, we will look at this from an all-island perspective and not just from the vantage of this State. I recognise and largely concur with some of Deputy Micheál Martin's comments. The architects of the Good Friday Agreement, many of whom, including the former Taoiseach,...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (28 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I travelled to Helsinki earlier this month, where I had bilateral meetings with the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and the Prime Minister of Finland, Juha Sipilä. Finland and Ireland are like-minded on many issues, and both bilateral meetings were very warm and constructive. In my meeting with Prime Minister Sipila we discussed a range of issues across the EU agenda...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: In Ireland, we provide our health and social care through a number of different mechanisms. Sometimes it is provided directly by the State through the HSE while at other times, it is provided through a section 38 body, which is a voluntary body. St. Vincent's University Hospital, which is not too far from here, would be an obvious example where the staff are considered to be public servants...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: As I have said before, these bodies are all very different. Some section 39 bodies are very small, may only receive €10,000 or €20,000 from the HSE and may have only one employee or a part-time employee. Other section 39 bodies are very large, have a large number of staff and provide a large number of services. Sometimes they have very little other income, other than what they...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Each of the bodies is very different and for each of thelm a service level agreement is put in place with the HSE. That body receives a particular amount of money in order to honour the service level set out in the service level agreement. That is the way it is done. It is similar to a contract, for example.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We are approaching Christmas time and the holiday season and people are looking forward to the Christmas holidays and spending time with their families, perhaps at home near the warmth of the fire. Of course, when one thinks about that, one's thoughts inevitably turn to those who are less fortunate, those who do not have a home to go to, those without shelter who are exposed to the cold....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is correct when she says that we have been in office for more than seven years. However, she did not mention that we spent the first five of those years putting this country back on track. Perhaps she would like people to forget, or not to know, that we spent five years getting the public finances back in order, reversing some of the awful cuts that were made in previous years to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. It is a very important issue, one in which the Deputy has taken a deep and genuine interest. It was not a question that I anticipated would come up today so unfortunately I do not have an up-to-date note on this particular matter and I have not had a chance to speak to the Minister for Children and Family Affairs, Deputy Zappone, about it. I know there is absolutely no...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Perhaps the appropriate course of action for me would be to communicate with the Minister, Deputy Zappone, and ask her to provide Deputy Connolly with an updated position. I have no wish to insult Deputy Connolly or anger her any further by giving a different response to that. What I will do – I am committing to doing this – is ask the Minister, Deputy Zappone, to provide an...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We should not forget that the purpose of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018 is to save lives. It used to be the case that 600 or 700 people died on the roads every year. The figure is now between 100 and 200, which is still 100 or 200 too many. We have both met the families of people who were killed on the road. The Deputy knows how the loss of a loved one on the road hurts a whole...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I can assure the Deputy that there are Garda checkpoints all over the country. I passed through one on the south quays just outside the Guinness brewery the other day. If there is anywhere where a checkpoint could cause a tailback, it is on such a busy road, yet there are checkpoints in those areas too for very good reasons. Neither I nor the Ministers, Deputies Flanagan and Ross, order...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Bill is due to move to Committee Stage in two weeks and the legislation on decision making will be addressed in the next session. As the Deputy will acknowledge, the Government controls neither this House nor the Upper House, so it is no longer possible for us to give assurances on how long it will take legislation to pass through the Houses. There is an effective filibuster in this...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: There is one thing I would say------

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: To go back to the important issue raised, disability, I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, in getting over the line some reforms regarding medical cards. Somebody in receipt of a disability allowance is now able to earn up to €427 per week without losing the medical card. That...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputies will know, it is not my practice to schedule meetings based on requests made across the floor of the House. Any Deputy who wants a meeting with me, in my capacity as Taoiseach or constituency Deputy, knows exactly how to seek a meeting. Deputies do so all the time.