Results 32,161-32,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Is this the new Covid restrictions subsidy scheme?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We will have more details next week. It will be operated by the Revenue. We intend that it will be open to applications next week. The first payments will be made to companies in November and it will be done on a weekly basis. It will be a payment to help cover their fixed costs when they are closed. It is largely focused at small and medium enterprises, SMEs, and the amount one can...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: There were two restart grants, as the Deputy knows. There was the original restart grant, which was set up by the previous Government, and then the restart grant plus, which was set up by the new Government as part of the July stimulus. The terms and conditions were different but some businesses were eligible to get both the restart grant and the restart grant plus. There is a small but...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We are aware of that being an issue. Enterprise Ireland is working on a solution that will help to provide loans to those companies given what is happening in the markets. I will send the Deputy more detail in writing. We are aware of the issue, and Enterprise Ireland is working on a solution to it. The Deputy, whose ministerial experience is showing, is quite right that I have no...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I appreciate that the context has changed but it will change again. One of the features of the pandemic we might not have anticipated months ago is the enormous impact it is having on our city centres and some town centres. The suburbs of Dublin are quite busy but footfall in the city centre is really low. Businesses with a high-cost model,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On remote working, there have been some interesting surveys of people who are working remotely. Roughly speaking, approximately 10% to 15% are dying to get back to the office full time. About 10% to 15% want to work from home permanently. There is a large majority in the middle, amounting to about 70%, who would like blended working. I believe that is going to be the future. It involves...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The decision to move Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan to level 4 will come as a bitter blow to the hundreds of thousands of people who live in those counties, although from my contacts with them I think the vast majority understand why it was necessary and that the decision had to be made given the very high instance of the virus in those counties relative to the rest of the State. People living...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: When the pandemic unemployment payment was introduced by the previous Government it was only supposed to last for 12 weeks. Obviously, we have learned since then that this pandemic is going to be with us for much longer than we thought. To make sure that we could extend it well into next year, if we have to, we had to link it to wages. That was done so that we could continue to support...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the argument Deputy Murphy is making. I can even understand, on occasion, the desire to seek to wish to blame someone for the fact that we are now experiencing a second wave of the virus. However, I do not believe the argument Deputy Murphy is making - that it is down to failures in testing and tracing - really stacks up. Let us consider Denmark, for example, a country that is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I wish to be very clear about this because people really need to understand the public health message. We are now six or seven months into this pandemic. If a GAA player or a player of anything or anyone tests positive for this virus, the close contacts of that person must restrict their movements. People should not wait to be called or contact traced. They do not have to wait to be...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Once someone tests positive, the close contacts of that person must restrict their movements for 14 days, call or no call, test or no test, contact tracing or no contact tracing. That is how we contain the virus.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: He was not contacted with the test result. Is that it? If there is a delay in getting a test result-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: He was not contacted with his test result. Is that correct?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: If Deputy Murphy wants me to check on that particular case I would be happy to do so. However, I am advised by the HSE that the median turn-around time is approximately two days, but I imagine there are cases where that does not happen.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate this is an important issue for the Deputy and for his constituents. I am afraid I am at a disadvantage in that I did not know this topic was going to be raised and I do not have a note on it. I am aware, however, that there are implications from that court case. The Minister for Finance is across that issue and is working on a solution, if it is possible to come up with one,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I beg the Deputy's indulgence in allowing me to come back to him on this. I do not have sight of any of those letters. I know this is an issue and it has been raised by other Deputies. I will be in contact with the Minister for Finance later today and I will get the Deputy a proper reply as soon as possible. I appreciate this is an issue that needs to be sorted but I do not want to give...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: When patients are admitted to a public hospital, they have the option of whether they wish to be treated as private or public patients, depending on their insurance status. Patients opting to be treated privately in a public hospital have chosen to pay the consultant and the hospital for the services each provides. The fee is not just for the bed, therefore, it is for the service of the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Charges are a matter for the HSE, operating under section 55 of the Health Act. Perhaps the solution for the HSE would be not to charge for the night if the person is in hospital for, let us say, four or five days. That is the average length of stay in hospital. Perhaps it would be sensible for the HSE not to charge for the first night if the patient ends up spending that night on a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I see that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation still does a daily trolley count but has discontinued the monthly count, which used to show that X month or Y month was the worst month ever, because that is not the case any more and we have seen a huge reduction in overcrowding, which is a positive.