Results 27,781-27,800 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: If if had been possible to take hundreds or thousands of extra staff into the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection during a period of high unemployment, what we would do with them now? Would we let them go? It makes sense to provide public services through the public sector and, on occasion, to augment services with a private provider.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: That is not true.

Death of former Members: Expressions of Sympathy (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am grateful for this opportunity to offer my condolences and pay tribute two people who served this country with honour and distinction. They both helped us as a country to come to terms with our history and in doing so enabled us to build a better future. Paddy Harte was an architect of peace and reconciliation on our island, building bridges across communities. His lasting...

Death of former Members: Expressions of Sympathy (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Please do.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We have not had an opportunity to discuss this at Cabinet yet but the purpose of referring this to the joint committee was to see if there could be a political consensus on a new wording. If we can have that consensus, or if the consensus is secured, and provided the Attorney General's advice is favourable on the implications and interpretations of any new wording we put into our...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: This is not a matter for promised legislation or the programme for Government but if the Deputy wants to put down a Topical Issue matter or a special notice question to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, I am sure he would be happy to come into the Chamber and answer her questions.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We will do that once it is finalised. We are happy to give the party leaders a briefing through the stakeholders group in the meantime. It cannot be finalised until mid-January because the legislation that would have to be enacted in the event of a no deal Brexit would be at European and domestic levels. We have to clarify what would be done at European level-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: That is a fair point. This is the Legislature that will have to enact that legislation and we will be happy to share it once it has been finalised. We can give party leaders a briefing informally before that but it cannot be finalised until we know what European legislation will be brought in because some of this will be done by EU directive and regulation and some will have to be done...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am aware of the case and I have met with John's former partner. Unfortunately, issuing a temporary or full passport would not solve the problem. He would not be allowed to leave the UAE. It is not a question of having a passport or not, it is a question of whether the UAE authorities would allow him to leave and at present they will not. I have written to Sheikh Khalifa about it and may...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is not correct to say the tests were messed up either by the State or by the laboratories. That was true in some of the cases but we do not yet know how many. It was not true in all the cases.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We know that for a fact. To answer the Deputy's substantive question, discussions are under way on that. The HSE's medicines management programme has developed a proposal that would allow women who might benefit from the drug to have the drug prescribed and reimbursed, regardless of whether they were caught up in the CervicalCheck audit. Discussions are under way with the company and,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Tá brón orm a rá nach bhfuil an Bille ullmhaithe nó réidh ach beidh sé réidh sa bhliain úr.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister of State, Deputy English, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, are still examining this matter, which affects some developments in my constituency as well. The primary difficulty in all of this is that if the State, in effect the taxpayer, were to take on the liability for repairing defects in private homes and buildings, the costs could run into many billions of euro,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: If the Deputy has an accurate cost that she can stand over, I would be happy to see it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, has done a lot of work on this matter with her colleague in the United Kingdom. I can assure people who receive UK pensions in whole or in part, or part of a UK benefit, andvice versa, that it will continue.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Yes.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Unfortunately, we did not have an opportunity to discuss that memo at Cabinet yesterday because we had to set aside additional time to talk about Brexit, so the memo will go to Cabinet next week. It is important that we have robust and effective road traffic laws-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----but it is also important that we are not too draconian either. I have to admit to, on occasion, having left my wallet at home and, therefore, having driven without my driving licence. We need to tighten up the law but we need to tighten it up in such a way that we are not a police state.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: There is a difference between the medical card scheme and the long-term illness scheme. The difficulty with the long-term illness scheme is that it does not have a statutory basis and, for that reason, it is not possible to add new illnesses to it without primary legislation, which would reopen the whole question of whether any of the illnesses on it should stay on it.