Results 28,821-28,840 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Scéimeanna Teanga (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: To do what? To study Irish.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Scéimeanna Teanga (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I understand there were schemes under which teachers received funding or bursaries to take a master's degree in education, for example. I know that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is examining whether we can restore any of those measures. To respond to Deputy Howlin's comments, what we fundamentally need to do is provide more opportunities to use the language in a more normal environment....

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, together. Cabinet committee B last met on 21 February. The date of the next Cabinet committee meeting has not yet been finalised. Cabinet committee B covers social policy and public services, including education, children, the Irish language, arts and culture, and also monitors continued improvements and reform of public services....

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: There have been increases of funding for the third level sector for the past couple of years running. There is funding in Project Ireland 2040 for a building programme. Anyone who visits our third level institutions regularly will see the number of new buildings that have been constructed in our universities and institutes of technology, ITs. I acknowledge that it is not all public money...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In fairness to employers, they recognise that this is an investment in their future workforce among other things. Provided we continue to have economic growth, we will be able to provide additional funding from central taxation as well. In terms of student contributions, as I have said before in the House, I am very reluctant to see student contributions being raised. I am very reluctant...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am not enthusiastic about or inclined to go down the road of increased student contributions or a student loan system for that reason. On the Scally report, I thank Dr. Scally for the work he did in preparing it in the first instance and the ongoing work he is doing for Government in monitoring its implementation. We want to make sure it gets implemented and that is why we have asked him...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and we are aiming for about 25,000 this year and 30,000 the year after. We are seeing evidence now of house prices stabilising. There is even evidence that they are falling in the Dublin area. That is what the latest results say. It is too early to read too much into that and there are other factors at play. I acknowledge that. There is very strong evidence now of a slowdown in...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think we had that last year. I think we are trying to move away from the idea.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The data the Minister will make available will be available in the summer economic statement, which should happen in April or May. On the issue of pensions, if I recall correctly, the Fine Gael general election manifesto included a commitment to increase the pension by €5 a year, which is exactly what we have done. I think the Fianna Fáil one tried to outbid us by going for...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We have implemented that commitment by increasing it by €5 a year.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The pension has been increased by almost €1,000 a year since this Government of Fine Gael and Independents took up office. What the Minister is talking about is indexation. I spoke about it myself when I was Minister for Social Protection. It is broadly supported by the charities and the NGO sector. It is done with the purpose of it being a floor, not a cap.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: One would index pensions and social welfare. They could be indexed to inflation or to wages or lots of other things. If they were indexed to inflation, increases would be much less than they have been.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: If they were indexed to wages, they would be greater than they have been. Indexation would never predetermine the outcome. It would just set a floor. The Government could and should do better if it can afford to do so.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, together. The committee last met on 8 February. The meeting was attended by Ministers and senior officials from the Departments of Finance; Public Expenditure and Reform; Foreign Affairs and Trade; Justice and Equality; Health; Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Transport, Tourism and Sport; Housing, Planning and Local...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is my general practice to answer the questions in the sequence in which they are asked. As I do not want to be accused of not answering some important questions, I might slightly divert from that.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have been asked several times by Deputy Micheál Martin and others to disclose what was said by whom at a European Council meeting. I cannot do that. The European Council operates under similar rules to a cabinet.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is not right nor is it possible for me to come in here and say that Chancellor Merkel said that or President Macron said this. It is not how the European Council works nor is it how it should work. If it has been reported that Chancellor Merkel said, "Get on with it", I can say that is not the case. On a no-deal Brexit, the fact that I neither confirm nor affirm something that somebody...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am not at liberty to say who said what at a European Council meeting any more than I am at liberty to say who said what at a Cabinet meeting. For anyone who does follow this session of a chamber, if anybody goes on the radio or television and tries to assert that a non-denial of something that somebody is alleged to have said at a European Council by me is confirmation, it is not. Those...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have not.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think any Minister has, but at official level-----