Results 30,321-30,340 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is €13 million for new developments and €26 million for pay increases and staff pay. That is new money. It is good that we pay our staff in mental health services more. That is how we can recruit and retain them. I am sorry that Sinn Féin seems to disregard the fact that we are providing money for more staff and to pay them more. We will not improve mental health...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s policy is to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Part of being tough on crime is providing more resources for gardaí as well as ensuring the Garda Síochána is reformed in order that those resources turn into actual gardaí on the street and on the ground for people to see them. This is what all the reforms are about. It is about...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We are doing exactly what Deputy Mattie McGrath suggests. We are making sure that there are more gardaí on the beat on our streets. That is why 700 more gardaí will be recruited in 2020. It is why civilianisation is happening. The process of civilianisation means that gardaí are being taken out of office and administration jobs and are being put back on the front line....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----in order to ensure that there are fewer chiefs, fewer gardaí in offices and more sergeants and inspectors on the ground in communities, less bureaucracy and duplication at Garda senior level and more decisions being made at local level.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: That is why I ask the Deputy to get behind these reforms, which are exactly what will deliver what he wants, namely, more gardaí on the streets. That is where we want to see them.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Certainly, everyone in government is keen to facilitate and assist the parties in re-establishing the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Julian Smith and the Tánaiste have been working on that for weeks and months. Indeed, as recently as last night, the Tánaiste was in Stormont and he briefed me on the state of play this...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Eamon Ryan is correct in his assessment that the talks will not end this week - or even this month - with an agreement. It is merely the end of the current phase of Brexit. What will happen, if we have an agreement this week or this month, is that we will then begin discussions on the future economic relationship and the future security relationship - the free trade agreement that we...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am happy to answer it. They are going ahead. All the projects the Deputy mentioned will go ahead and I look forward to turning the sod on St. Patrick's national school, in Corduff, in the new year.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It would already have gone ahead had the contractor who got the tender not pulled out but we have approached a second contractor and are ready to go in the new year. The same goes for the Edmund Rice Schools Trust but that does not have planning permission yet so that is the next step in respect of that particular project.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy may ask how there can be a reduction in the schools capital budget and projects continue. I will explain how this comes about. The budget in 2016, when this Government took office, was €530 million. It was increased to €532 million in 2017. It was increased to €547 million in 2018. It was increased to €622 million in 2019 and it will be €620...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I know the N81 very well but I do not know the details of this particular project. We have a roads programme that is powering ahead but it is only really possible to do two major projects each year. As the Deputy will be aware, the Enniscorthy and New Ross projects are being finished, the Sligo project has just started, the Westport to Castlebar project was signed off yesterday and we...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is certainly a matter I will mention to the Minister, Deputy Ross.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I met him yesterday at Cabinet and, subsequently-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----when we announced a €240 million road investment in County Mayo.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid I do not have information on the new secondary school for Ballincollig at present. I appreciate that the first step will be to identify a patron and then to identify a site and pursue the development of the new school. I will inform the Minister, Deputy McHugh, that the matter was brought up today in the Chamber and will ask him to provide Deputy Aindrias Moynihan with a reply....

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. Cabinet committee C last met on Thursday, 21 June 2018. Following a Government decision on 25 July 2019 on the establishment of Cabinet committees, Cabinet committee structures were reorganised. The Cabinet committee on Brexit and European affairs was established to ensure a co-ordinated approach in the areas of Brexit and foreign and...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I still cannot work out whether People Before Profit is nationalist, unionist or "other".

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I know it is pro-Brexit so I think it is unionist.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I will pick up on Deputy Boyd-Barrett's comments on People Before Profit in Northern Ireland. He is absolutely correct that it is one of the three parties designated as "other" - these are the Alliance Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit - and it does this on the basis that it rejects sectarianism, which is good. I acknowledge that. It is also a party that campaigned for Brexit-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It at least advocated Brexit, which is regrettable. There are some in the radical left family in Ireland who advocate a socialist federation of England, Scotland and Ireland.