Results 34,601-34,620 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. It was not an off-the-cuff remark, by the way; it was an on-the-record response to a question I was asked at a press conference. Those are the facts. What the CMO said yesterday is that NPHET did not recommend the cancellation of communions and confirmations because, in the view of NPHET, they were not supposed to be taking place anyway. We had hoped it would be...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The opening date, if one likes, for the digital certificate was today, 1 July. We are the only country in the EU that has not done so but the regulation does allow countries six weeks to comply. As we stated from the outset, we intend to have that in place for 19 July. That is being worked on at the moment. I understand there are some significant difficulties but we are still confident...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The new guidance and advice from NIAC allows us to do two things. It allows us to speed up delivery of a second dose for people waiting for one, particularly those who had the AstraZeneca vaccine. That will be done in a matter of two to three weeks at the most. For younger people, that is, those under 40 who have not been vaccinated yet, it will speed that up as well. We are just working...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is that time of year again when we are starting to run into issues in respect of school transport. I know that such issues can cause a great deal of distress for many families. The best thing I can do is to let the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, know that the Deputy raised the issue and ask her to reply directly to the Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid that I do not know why nobody was invited from that group. I do know that MICA and pyrite have affected homes in Clare and Limerick and that it is not just an issue in Mayo and Donegal. We will have to ensure that they are part of the solution in some way. I will let the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, know that the Deputy raised the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I am afraid that I do not have any information on it to hand. I will certainly let the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, or the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, whichever one is appropriate, know that the issued was raise and ask her to contact the Deputy directly.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am afraid that I do not have a timeline in respect of the proposed legislation currently. It is very much part of the Department's work programme.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The scheme was temporary. Like all temporary schemes, it has to come to an end. The big change that has happened in nursing homes is that the residents and staff are now almost all fully vaccinated. Thankfully, the number of cases and outbreaks has been, and continues to be, very small. However, infection control is always a good thing, particularly in nursing homes. What probably needs...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Leo Varadkar: On the western rail corridor project, the national development plan is under review and the revised version should be published in July, if not a little later. Of course, as the Deputy is aware, other reports have been produced on the issue, such as the Jasper Consulting report, which came to different conclusions. The Government is very aware of the problems being created by the...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the committee for taking my Department’s 2021 FRE this morning. I appreciate that it has a busy agenda. My officials provided the secretariat with a detailed briefing on the elements of the FRE, which I hope was of assistance to members. The 2021 Estimate, which I present this morning, provides my Department with a gross allocation of €1.142 billion. This is broken...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy was right to say some of the capital funding both from the regional enterprise development fund, REDF, and the Border fund was unspent last year. We set up a Border fund exactly for that reason. My predecessor, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, felt the Border area was not getting its fair share of funding and was able to produce evidence to prove that. Much of the funding was not...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: We are expecting an interim report in July. I have not seen it yet so I do not know what will be in it. It probably has not been written yet but I would hope the working group would complete its work in the autumn or certainly before the end of the year. It is a complicated area, as the Deputy will be aware. I have brought together the employers, the unions and the Government to review...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy asked about the code of practice on remote working. That is a ministerial code but, as she rightly said, is not contained in statute. However, the Organisation of Working Time Act is enforceable by law. The interplay of the Act and the code of practice is important because as people increasingly work remotely via the devices we all know and love, working hours are no longer...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: In reply to the Deputy's earlier question, we sometimes appoint external adjudicators to the WRC for a period of a year to speed up cases. Sixteen such adjudicators were appointed recently. There are many different Government-backed loans available at the moment. It is hard to keep track of them sometimes. They are available in all areas, even beyond business. The Microfinance Ireland...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not going to comment on the individual case. I know the Deputy is not asking me to do so but I just want to make that clear for the record. We will make sure the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has enough resources to carry out its functions. One area on which we are in discussions with the Department of Justice relates to gardaí. We want to make sure that when...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I will try to cover as many of his questions as I can. As regards the Delta variant, we anticipate that we will review the situation again in the run-up to 19 July. The key question on which we do not yet have full answers is that of transmissibility and how much more transmissible is it relative to the Alpha variant or the original Wuhan or wild strain. They will say...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am very much aware of the issue of the CT scanner in WIT. The Deputy raised the matter with me on a few occasions and I know he will not give up until it is purchased. I spoke to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science about it. The way I understand it works is that there is an approved list of things Science Foundation Ireland has but it must work...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I have two things to say about that. It has never been a requirement for people to be vaccinated when they go to work. Throughout the pandemic, we have had teachers in front of the classroom, retail workers in shops where the customers are mostly not vaccinated, transport workers driving buses and healthcare workers going into relatively risky scenarios before they were vaccinated so it has...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure there is any legal standard on ventilation for most or any workplaces. It might be the case in a few but to my knowledge, it is not a legal standard requirement for any particular workplace. For the first time, we included a chapter on ventilation advising people what to do to make sure there is good ventilation and fresh air, which helps to reduce the risk of transmission, in...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Further Revised) (30 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Ventilation is important, masks are important, sanitisation is important and cleaning protocols are important. However, on none of these things do we have a legal standard. To be honest, I do not know enough about the science of masks, ventilation or sanitisation to say what the legal standard should be. What we have is guidance and that guidance is applied and inspected. The inspectors...