Results 31,081-31,100 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I note at the outset that it is very sad that there are so many people, so many children, on waiting lists for healthcare and therapies. It is not good enough. I know that and I feel it very much in my constituency work with the parents and children I meet from time to time who tell me of their personal stories. It is only right, however, that we in this House acknowledge that waiting...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: That will be the first step in our plan to remove private practice from public hospitals.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: That is not correct.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is not like Deputy Martin to be partisan.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I welcome Deputy Martin's acknowledgement that there has been a considerable reduction, of approximately 30%, in patients waiting for operations and procedures since the middle of 2017.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: And on a bipartisan basis, I want to acknowledge that the investment through the NTPF has worked. I know those on the left have an ideological objection to using the fund.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is something that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did together. I am glad that has worked and I am happy to acknowledge Fianna Fáil's role in encouraging us-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----to increase funding for the NTPF, which has now worked and means that the number of people waiting for more than 12 weeks for a hip replacement, knee replacement, tonsils, veins, angiograms and so on is approximately half of what it was as recently as summer 2017.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: There is not a moratorium. Any post that is funded can be filled. There are more people working in our health service than there were this time last year, which is just a simple fact. I will answer the question on pay inequality for consultants again. I have discussed this as Taoiseach, working with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Harris, and we are willing to make an offer to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We have always accepted that there is a housing crisis and shortage in the country. Nobody in any party in this House is in denial about that. I have not had a chance to read the Deputy's document yet. I do not think I have received it but it may be in my post bag, which I have not had a chance to look at yet. The first case the Deputy raised is a complex one and there are individual...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I do not seek to hide behind facts or figures. I am just presenting the facts. The Deputy does not deny that those facts and figures are correct, which means there is legitimacy in what I am saying. I care much more about these issues than Deputy McDonald does. I care deeply about the housing crisis and the problems in our health service, which is why I have taken on the mantle of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and appalling health and homelessness crises are now unfolding in Northern Ireland. If Sinn Féin really cared about health and housing, it would have gone into government in Northern Ireland, fixed those problems and shown us how it was done. It then could have come here and said it would do the same, but it did not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The people who care about health, housing and the problems our country faces are those who spend 16 or 18 hours every day trying to fix them. Deputy McDonald does not care. She comes into this House twice a day and makes out that she has some sort of monopoly on compassion, but she does not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: If Sinn Féin cared, it would have stayed in government in Northern Ireland three years ago-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and solved these problems.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I spent some of the morning in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with the Minister, Deputy Zappone, where I had the privilege of formally launching the national childcare scheme, which is now operating. More than 15,000 families have already qualified for the national childcare scheme. It is a big step forward in terms of the Government's policy in this area, which is to make...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----or somebody who looks after a few children in his or her house after school or an au pair. We do not want to over-regulate, undermine or get rid of that system because if we did, it would be a disaster. Tens of thousands of people would find that they did not have any way to look after their children and might have to leave the workplace. This would then make it harder for them to pay...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and we need to make sure we do not make those mistakes again. This is a work in progress. We all acknowledge that we need to get the balance right in protecting children but also making sure we do not close down an entire informal sector of childminding that has generally served us well so we will try to get it right.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I will do that. I have been very engaged with the Minister in the past couple of days but it has been mainly around making sure the national childcare scheme was successfully launched, which it has, and is working, and issues relating to Tuam. The Deputy knows that yesterday, the Minister published the heads of the Bill that will allow us to carry out excavations, not just at Tuam but...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: This is nothing to do with austerity. Thankfully, in Ireland, austerity has been over for more than three years. As a result of that, unemployment is a third of what it was not too long ago in 2012, incomes are rising, poverty and deprivation are falling and, as we know from the figures from the CSO survey on income and living conditions released the other day, income inequality is at its...