Results 29,201-29,220 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committee Meetings (8 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Cabinet Committee D last met on 31 January 2019. The Committee’s objective is to ensure a coordinated approach to policy and delivery in the areas of infrastructure investment, housing, and climate action. It also provides an opportunity for political oversight in relation to Project Ireland 2040. Significant work is underway across each of these areas through Government Departments...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Taoiseach's Communications (8 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have not spoken directly with Prime Minister Sánchez since the recent elections in Spain. However I look forward to seeing him again at the Informal Summit in Sibiu, Romania, this Thursday, 9 May. My last formal interaction with Prime Minister Sánchez was on 28 December, 2018 when we spoke by phone. I also met and engaged informally with him at the meetings of the European...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. While I am happy to answer his questions, we should not lose sight of the objective here. The national broadband plan is the largest ever investment in rural Ireland and probably the most significant investment to take place since rural electrification. It is about connecting 1.1 million people, 450,000 homes, 50,000 farms and 50,000 businesses to high-speed broadband....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know the answer to the Deputy's question about Peter Smyth but I will inquire and let him know as soon as I can find out. That was an independent process audit as the Deputy knows so I did not have any involvement in it. I do not agree that this is unprecedented. For example, I consider the fact that the State found €8 billion over ten or 20 years to connect our cities by...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We connected Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Galway by motorway and spent €8 billion doing so. This project involves €3 billion to connect 1.1 million homes across the country, in all 26 counties, so I do not agree that it is an unprecedented investment, nor do I think it is an unprecedented risk

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The cost-benefit analysis was done independently and I believe it stacks up.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It shows that the benefits outweigh the costs in the optimistic scenario, the pessimistic scenario and the central case scenario. The cost-benefit analysis is conservative because it does not take into account the wider societal benefits-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----of connecting 1.1 million people across rural Ireland to high-speed broadband. What are those wider societal benefits? They are, for example, access to ehealth and education online, which is now becoming an increasingly important aspect of education, with kids being able to download from Google and access apps online. It does not take into account the climate action benefits that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am confident that National Broadband Ireland has the capacity to deliver. If it does not, there are protections in the contract. If the company does not deliver, if it seeks an increased subsidy or if it fails to meet certain milestones, the State can terminate the contract and take over the network. I am confident, therefore, that it has the capacity to deliver but I also understand...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Other bidders, such as Eir, submitted initial bids for similar sums, but the fact that there was only one bidder at the end of the process should tell us something.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In commercial terms, the project is not enormously attractive.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: There is risk attached. In this system and approach, the State is not taking on all the risk. A private sector operator is bringing to the table money and expertise and sharing the risk. There is a risk, with no guarantee of commercial return. It is important to understand that is how the project has been established. As a Government, we have a simple choice about whether we sign the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----in every county. All 26 counties will see connections in the second year. A company is willing to do it, we have the money available and we know we can achieve 100% coverage. If we go back to square one we will not know any of this. We will be saying to rural Ireland that it has waited too long and we will make it wait longer. That would be wrong. Later in the debate I will be happy...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and why in a previous Government Fine Gael and the Labour Party went down this road in the first place.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have already answered the question on capacity. In some ways, something the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, said last week summed it up for me. He said that if we sign this contract in the next few months rural broadband will be delivered and we will connect 1.1 million homes, farms and businesses throughout the country but if we do not sign the contract it may never happen. He is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: If it does not happen this way, if the roll-out is delayed or the take-up is slower than projections it is the investor that will have to put in the extra equity and money and not the State. Our risk is capped and that of the investor is not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ComReg is the price regulator for telecoms in the State and has a role in capping prices. The Deputy may not agree but I see this as a Labour Party project, as well as a project of this Government. The Deputy's party and its Ministers were at the centre of making the project a reality, with a decision in 2012 to go to tender and to ask public and private companies on the open market to bid....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Subsequently, in December 2015, his successor in the Department, Alex White, also of the Labour Party, examined five different options of ownership and decided to narrow them down to just two. One was the concession model, the other the gap-funded model. The decision to go for the gap-funded model was made by this Government but the decision to narrow down the options to just two was made...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The poles and the ducts belong to Eircom because they were sold off 20 years ago by a Fianna Fáil-led Government.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: If we were to replicate that, a State company would have to put up all its own poles and all its own ducts. The cost doing that would be phenomenal. Even if we did go down the State company model, it would still be relying on privately owned poles and privately owned ducts that they would have to rent from Eircom.