Results 31,441-31,460 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Every day there is some good news with the declining number of new cases, but it is tempered by sadness and grief at the loss of more lives. Although the numbers are small, every single one is heartbreaking, and our condolences go to all of the families and friends affected. While we may be adjusting our lives to a new normal, we will never get used to the deaths caused by Covid-19, and we...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has got it wrong. I am happy to set the record straight for her, but by getting it wrong, once again she is the one who has caused stress for a lot of people who are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment today. It was a payment introduced by a Government that I lead. It amounts to €350 per week, a flat rate and one of the most generous in Europe. I stand over...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: From the outset, I have always said that this is a living plan that can be accelerated if we are getting on top of and ahead of the virus. One thing we will stick with is the three-week intervals. They are in place for good epidemiological reasons. If one relaxes restrictions and the virus spreads, incubates and is tested for and so on, it will be at least two weeks before that shows up in...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy suggested, the Minister, Deputy McHugh, might be more up to date on this matter than I am. Assuming the virus continues to move in the right direction, primary and secondary schools will open for all children at the beginning of the school year, which is the end of August. What we have not yet worked out fully is the exact arrangements around how that will happen because...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Kelly. On young people who were working part-time before the pandemic and lost their jobs as a consequence of the pandemic, the changes we are making tomorrow will ensure that those young people are no worse off than they were before the pandemic. The most important thing for those young people is not the pandemic unemployment payment, rather, it is enabling them to get back...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I answered a similar question on direct provision earlier. On the events we have seen take place in the United States, as I stated, we have witnessed a real absence of moral leadership from the top in the United States. We should have had words of unity, comfort and reconciliation, but we did not get them and that is absolutely wrong. I am sure that if those events had happened in this...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The former Debenhams workers should get the redundancy payments they were promised, in my view, but, as I understand it, most of these issues are now matters for the courts and none of us can interfere in that. It is dishonest to tell people that politicians can interfere in a court process when they cannot. Let me restate what I said earlier about the pandemic unemployment payment. The...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I have no knowledge or information on that incident. It is one on which I would have to seek a report from the Garda and I shall. There are a lot of restrictions in place as a consequence of this pandemic but there are not restrictions on protests or industrial action. Pickets and protests can happen provided people behave in a way consistent with the regulations, which are maintaining a...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I have answered questions on the pandemic unemployment payment already so perhaps I will answer some of the Deputy's other questions. I am totally opposed to reintroducing austerity or austerity measures in Ireland. There is nothing I would hate more to see happen to our country than having to experience more austerity budgets. Let us not forget why we had austerity in Ireland ten or 12...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to check out the Deputy's question about trotting racing. I am not familiar with the case the IHRA is making so I will check that out later today or tomorrow and come back to the Deputy. On greyhound racing, we would hope to get it back some time this month. That is not confirmed yet but that is the intention. It will be without spectators but it will all be done outdoors...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My thanks to Deputy Pringle. As I mentioned earlier, direct provision is very often substandard. The kind of accommodation we want is at the McMahon standard level, where it is self-catering and where people have their own door. Much of direct provision is substandard and that needs to change. We have brought in good examples of accommodation in recent years, but obviously the whole...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. There is the reopening grant of up to €10,000 which is available to small businesses to help them reopen. Rates are waived for three months. There is the wage subsidy scheme, which pays a lot of the salaries and wages of people who work in small businesses. In terms of utilities, one only pays for the utilities one pays for, but the companies have agreed a...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cycle to Work Scheme (9 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Since the introduction of the Cycle to Work scheme in January 2009, 100 applications have been made by staff of my Department. There is no discernible cost to my Department's vote in administering the Cycle to Work scheme, as the bicycles and equipment are paid for by way of salary sacrifice by those acquiring the bicycles. There are minor costs in processing forms and in carrying the...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is now more than 100 days since the first recorded case of Covid-19 in our State, 92 days since the first person died from the virus, and 91 days since we instituted the first set of measures to suppress its spread and protect as many people as possible from its deadly power. Today, as always, we think of the 1,695 people who, as of last night, have died from or with Covid-19, and a...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate what the Deputy said and that there are concerns about how the summer programme will work. As she said, these concerns exist before the announcement has been made. I anticipate and hope that should the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, get approval for the summer programme tomorrow, they will be able to answer...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for his contribution. We all agree, accept and understand that racism exists in every society. It may take different forms but that makes it no less real. Sadly, Ireland is by no means immune to the scourge of racism. I had a very good engagement yesterday, as the Deputy mentioned, with Irish people who are black and of colour. That Zoom call went on for over an...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. I do not want to say too much about it but I was rather taken aback to see Tyson Fury dropping the name of the person the Deputy mentioned in a video the other day as if he was not a person with quite a chequered history in this State and elsewhere. While I cannot comment on a particular Garda operation, I can certainly assure the Deputy that...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Decisions will be made by the Government, not by individual airlines. The decisions we make will be co-ordinated with the European Commission and with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA. We need to bear in mind that we are all EU citizens. EU citizens have the freedom to travel, work and study anywhere in the European Union. We can bring in limitations based on public health...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We have considerable testing and tracing capacity now, with capacity to test 100,000 people a week and to trace many thousands of people which is not being used at the moment because of the low level of demand for it. It can be used if we need to do so in the future. The future will involve making sure that we have a very strong testing and tracing capacity, so that any important cases and...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for bringing this petition. I will give it full and meaningful consideration over the next couple of days. I mean that. A lot of the legislation the Deputy mentioned was passed when we had a properly constituted Seanad. We do not have one now, so we are not in a position to enact primary legislation. This may require that. We cannot always bring in retrospective...