Results 32,481-32,500 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On 4thAugust 2020 I opened a Scheme which provided urgent funding to small businesses, community and voluntary organisations in the South West region who have been affected by flooding due to heavy rainfall. The Emergency Humanitarian Scheme, funded by my Department and administered by the Irish Red Cross on its behalf, provides urgent funding to small businesses, sports clubs, community and...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am keenly aware that businesses are making a massive sacrifice to protect their communities and I am committed to ensuring that the Government will offer as much assistance and support as possible. Budget 2021 provides a significant package of tax and expenditure measures to build the resilience of the economy and to help vulnerable but viable businesses across all sectors. The measures in...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: State Aid (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: State aid rules apply equally to all Member States and therefore are developed by the European Commission in consultation with Member States. As such, no national Government has sole discretion to make changes to these rules but each Member State provides input into the development of the rules be this through the State aid Modernisation process which is currently underway, State aid Fitness...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Grant Payments (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My Department has engaged with the relevant Local Authority on this matter and I am pleased to learn that the business in question has benefitted from both the Restart and Restart Grant Plus schemes. I am further advised that a 30% top-up payment has been awarded, which amounts to a total of €29,500 in grants paid to the business.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In my statement on Tuesday, I clearly and definitely accepted responsibility for this. I used the term "sole responsibility" and therefore I have not sought to blame anyone else. I have apologised for it, I have accounted for it and I have said that I accept responsibility for it. I have not been equivocal about that in any way. I do not have a copy of the document that I sent to Dr....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not recall there being a second document. I only recall there being one document. As I have said, I do not, as standard, keep all of my text messages. I do not think most Members of this House do. Obviously, anything I consider to be a public record - for example, if somebody sends an email to my personal account, which happens from time to time - I forward to my official account,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: What is that plan for?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the meat plants, we very much acknowledge they are high risk environments. It is to do with the temperature, the airflow and so on and that is why there is a surveillance programme of testing in meat plants. Thankfully, the percentage of results coming back positive has so far been very small. On international travel, I confess I am not across things as much in the past few days as I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: One of the issues we are going to have to consider is enforcement. As the Deputy knows, at the moment the requirement for a person to restrict his or her movements having come in from abroad is not mandatory. It is very highly advisory but not mandatory. Neither is it mandatory, however, for a person to restrict his or her movements if he or she is a close contact, which is a much higher...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has raised a few important issues. With regard to the flu vaccine, there is very high demand for it at present, which is encouraging. People who did not seek the flu vaccination in previous years are seeking to be vaccinated this year and this is a real positive. Supply is short, not just in Ireland but internationally. There is more on the way. No matter what happens, we will...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We do recognise that and I know the chief medical officer recognises it also. One of the real concerns we have during the pandemic is what people call secondary deaths, for example, people who have a heart attack not going to the hospital because they think it is overwhelmed and they do not want to bother the doctors and nurses, and perhaps people who have stroke symptoms delaying seeking...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am genuinely not aware of the dispute with the polers that the Deputy has mentioned. I will see the Minister, Deputy Ryan, this afternoon and I will mention to him that it was raised in the Dáil and he might be able to inform me, or inform the Deputy directly, as to what is the difficulty. As the Deputy knows, the contract is given to National Broadband Ireland...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. If he can give me that information later, I will be happy to speak to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it in the afternoon. Given what I have learned in the last week, I will make sure that whatever the Deputy gives me is somehow scanned onto some sort of system so nobody can accuse him of being informal or something like that.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the first part, we have the request from the Deputy’s party and we will be happy to give him any records we have. I might ask the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to answer the question on social protection.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. On the second point, HIQA has done a health technology assessment on rapid testing, which the Deputy may have seen. It was not as positive or favourable as I might have hoped it would be. There are definitely pros and cons to rapid testing and NPHET is very much working on that at the moment. I cannot say it will be ready by 1 December and that is probably unlikely,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am familiar with this issue and I am aware of a constituent of mine who is in a similar position. I will speak to the Minister for Education about it again. What we would like to do, if possible, is to set up some sort of mechanism by which they could join the classroom from home, if that makes any sense. There would be a camera in the classroom and they could join...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I have read about in the past couple of weeks. It is appalling to see an increase in this crime of people stealing pets off other people, often older and vulnerable people. I do not have a pet but I know many people who do and I do not think anybody regards their cat or their dog to be property in the way they would a mobile phone or...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. As he mentioned, the Taoiseach met with the four Catholic archbishops to talk about what might be possible in the next couple of weeks. We are reluctant to change any of the regulations at the moment. I understand the point the Deputy is making about people being able to attend mass. In most countries it is allowed, for obvious reasons. It is allowed north of the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a fair question and I would love to be able to say here that on 1 December we will to move to level 3 or 2 and give people the ability to plan their lives and businesses, but I am not in a position to do that. This virus can change very quickly. We have seen in the course of a few days or a week the numbers increasing dramatically, and as the CMO explained at the committee the other...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I was not aware of that, but Pieta House is a mental health charity that provides excellent services and help for people who need help around mental health and suicide, in particular. As a Senator, Senator Doherty has no role in deciding what funding a charity receives. She is not a Minister and does not hold executive office. I do not think there is a conflict of...