Results 34,021-34,040 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (21 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am acutely aware of the difficulties that these necessary ongoing Covid-19 restrictions are putting on all businesses right across the country. Business owners are making sacrifices in order to protect their communities. As you know the Government has put in place a comprehensive package to help businesses and workers during the pandemic, including the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Reports (21 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will recall that this particular Economic and Sustainability Impact Assessment consists of two important and complementary components, namely a comprehensive analysis of the potential economic benefits as well as a robust sustainability impact assessment including social, human rights and environmental impacts that the trade Agreement could have in Ireland and the Mercosur...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of Dolphin Trust. I am afraid I am not aware of all, or even many, of the facts in relation to this issue and I am reluctant to give an answer that may be incorrect. However, I want to express my sympathy to those affected, both here in Ireland and across Europe. These were small investors who have lost money, as the Deputy said. On the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Obviously, this is a very serious matter, not only for the people who are directly affected. People will have questions and they will want answers. They should get those answers but, unfortunately, I am not the person who can offer those answers because this is not something that I have any detailed knowledge of but I will inform the Minister for Finance that it was raised here and ask him...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for raising this issue, which is really important to him and really important to me too. It is true young people have suffered a lot in this pandemic. Different people and different sectors in our society have suffered in different ways. Women have suffered differently from men and older people have suffered differently from young people....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I just think that is a very cheap shot. The Deputy once again is engaging in virtue signalling, trying to make out that not only do we disagree with each other, he is also a better person than me and he cares more. That is just cheap politics, I believe. The number of times one tweets about something is not necessarily a reflection of how important one regards it-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: If the Deputy wants, he can go back and read a speech I gave to the Young Fine Gael conference only last Saturday. A large section of that speech specifically dealt with this issue, namely, how young people have been impacted by the pandemic and what we intend to do. It was covered in the media and the fact that it was not tweeted is irrelevant. That was just a cheap shot, unfortunately.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy made some very good points. However, while Denmark has had a very good response to the pandemic and is one of the few countries in Europe, or the world, with a lower mortality rate than us, we would not follow Slovakia's or Hungary's response to the pandemic because their mortality rates, sadly, are among the highest in the European Union. Deputy Shanahan is spot on in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Taoiseach and I feel strongly about this, not least, because we are former health Ministers and understand the problems facing health administration. We are both keen to use a decent chunk of the European recovery fund - we have approximately €800 million to €900 million coming to us - on e-health, to do some of what Deputy Shanahan suggested. However, much has happened...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising a question I have been asking in recent weeks because Government made the commitment many years ago to build a new emergency department in University Hospital Galway, on the existing site. It is in the Project Ireland 2040 plan and has been in all our capital plans for quite some time. My understanding - I may not be fully up to date on this - is the plan is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I think we agree on one point, that we need a clear plan for hospital services in Galway and that we need to get on with it. I am frustrated and embarrassed too that this has taken so long. This is a project that was live when I was Minister for Health, which was five or six years ago. I will take this up with the CEO of the HSE. I appreciate that the HSE has much on its plate, especially...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid I may have to come back to the Deputy with a further reply on this but my understanding is that if a planning application is lodged, it is lodged under the existing law, not under a proposed law or a future law. I do not know much about proposals to revise this development. I received a presentation some years ago about what was planned for the area. I know we purchased four...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: That is a good idea so I will certainly speak to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it to see if we can do something or examine that. I would point out that part-time working is not new. We have had people who work for two or three days a week in the city centre for as long as I can remember and probably since the beginning of time. Part-time working is not something new so perhaps there is...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I do not believe there are any plans for legislation in that regard but I will check with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We need to take a more rounded approach to housing in general. Rather than banning different types of housing or housing investment, we need all sorts of housing and lots more of it, whether it is social housing for people on the housing list,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate these are important issues and the Deputy is entitled to raise them, but where they refer to specific developments and specific individuals, it is difficult for me to reply without knowing any or much of the information. If the Deputy wants to correspond with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, that would be the best way to bring the matter forward.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am a friend of Wexford General Hospital. My first job as a surgical intern was in the hospital back in 2003. I have fond memories of working there. I got a great education there but I also met some really great people. Increasingly, MR is becoming a standard investigation method and it would make sense to have that facility available in every acute general hospital. I do not know what...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I will inform the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, that the Deputy has raised this matter again and I will ask him to furnish the Deputy with a detailed reply.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid I am not familiar with the survey, so I probably should not comment on it. I will, however, take a look at it. The Government is investing more in homeless services than has ever been the case previously. While there are still far too many people homeless in our country, it is down considerably on where we were a year or two ago. We must ensure we keep that trajectory going in...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I concur with the Deputy's remarks. It is very much my view that if we are going to solve the housing crisis, make homes more available to more people and reduce the cost of housing, well then a big part of doing that, which is probably the main part, has to be more supply. We need to be building about 35,000 homes a year in Ireland. We are not doing that and the pandemic has not helped....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy knows, all the evidence suggests that outdoor dining is much safer than indoor. The same applies to drinking outdoors being safer than drinking indoors. That is why the Government established a scheme to help restaurants and gastro pubs make better use of their outdoor areas. I understand that so-called "wet pubs", and I hope we abolish that term soon, cannot avail of this...