Results 36,301-36,320 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Almost certainly not. I have not seen a draft yet, so it is probably not completed. However, we are committed to doing it. We will try to get it done in the next few weeks. It is evident to everyone that in Ireland we need more electricity. We need it for all the new homes being built, all the new business that are being established, all the electric cars that people are going to buy and...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That is with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage at the moment. Obviously, there is a cost to the Exchequer in raising those thresholds. It is something that will have to be considered in the context of the forthcoming budget. As the Deputy knows, I am somebody who broadly believes in the concept of indexation as a principle, not just for tax credits and tax bands, but...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That may well still be the case. I will have to check with the Minister.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I honestly do not know the answer to that question. I will make inquiries with the Minister in Tusla about it. It seems to be the kind of information that should be collated. It is a relatively new agency, but I would have thought that at least in recent years it would have been able to collect that kind of data. It is important to have it for lots of reasons. I will make some further...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I met with the CEO and senior team of Irish Water just in the past two weeks. As the Deputy can imagine, these issues are brought to my attention all the time. Often, smaller towns around the country that need to expand cannot because waste water services are not available. There is industry that cannot be built because water is not available. In some cases, housing developments cannot...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: This is, as the Deputy said, a very big problem. It is driving homelessness in some cases. What is happening is traditional landlords who might have one or two properties are leaving the market. For every one that comes in, two leave. This is a big problem. The reasons why that is happening may not be all that comfortable for us to absorb fully. What are they saying? They are saying...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is not a funding issue. Funding was provided in both the national service plan in 2021 and 2022 to progress the home support management system. The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people is aware that an IT system is an essential foundation to drive reform of home support and to make it more efficient and...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: In the distant past, I used to work in North East Doctor on Call, seeing patients in an old prefab right across from the emergency department in Navan Hospital and also the cottage in Drogheda. It was a very good service, I have to say. I think that, as much as possible, these services should operate 24-7, for reasons we will all understand. I understand this is principally a funding...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That is a good idea and definitely worthy of examination. My Department has responsibility for consumer affairs and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, falls under our remit, so I will talk to my officials about that to see if there is something we can do around price monitoring. I should say that it is clear to me that the drivers of inflation are multifactorial....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I think that sometimes there is more than one solution to a problem. I very much support late-night and 24-7 public transport. The Deputy will be aware new services are coming online and for the first time we have 24-7 public transport services. Improving conditions for taxi drivers can help as well. I do not think we should rule out giving consideration to additional solutions. Like the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I will speak to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, on that issue as I am not as up-to-date on the issue as I would have been in the past. Certainly, 12 people seems a very low number. I appreciate that many consultant neurologists have doubts about the clinical efficacy of cannabis as a treatment for certain illnesses. While it is not for us to tell doctors what to prescribe...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I was in Geneva for the World Trade Organization talks last week. As the European Union negotiates on behalf of Ireland in these talks, decisions were made at European Commission level rather than at member state level. We did however manage to come to an agreement on a waiver in respect of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS. It may not be the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: To be frank, I am not fully apprised of the detail of that treaty. It probably falls under the remit of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, so I will make sure that he knows it was raised and I will ask him to come back to Deputy Costello directly.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I concur with Deputy Bruton's remarks. Some good work is being done around the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the advocacy services linked to that. That is a very narrow area of the issue to which Deputy Bruton refers. He is talking about a wider area so I will talk to Deputy Bruton about it in more detail offline and see what we can do.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I will respond in reverse order. I thank Deputy Farrell for raising this issue. I understand that publication will happen in the next number of weeks, hopefully before the recess. In relation to Deputy Richmond who raised the real problem we have at the moment in regard to people being able to get taxis and get home safely, I am not sure there is much we can do for this weekend or for the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Funding (22 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: A total of €43.781 million has been allocated by my Department to support the Local Enterprise Offices for 2022. The table below sets out the estimated cost of increasing funding to the LEOs by 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% respectively. REV Allocation 2022 (€,000) 10% Increase (€,000) 15% Increase (€,000) 20% Increase...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Bodies (22 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: A number of Agencies funded under my Department’s Vote, most notably Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, National Standards Authority of Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices, generate Own Resource Income (ORI) from a range of their activities. The Agencies may retain and expend the ORI that they generate on pursuing their mandates subject to the limits sanctioned by the Minister for...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Environmental Schemes (22 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: My department is actively pursuing opportunities for decarbonisation across our entire enterprise base and we always aim to foster strong, resilient businesses, that are successful and sustainable, while meeting the enterprise sector’s climate objectives. The Green Transition fund I launched last week has two elements, the "Climate Planning Fund for Business" and the...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Responsibility for the administration and processing of COVID-19 illness benefit claims falls to my colleague, the Minister for Social Welfare and her Department. Therefore my Department is not in a position to supply any details on the matter. 

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Flexible Work Practices (23 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Right to Request Remote Working Bill is part of a broader Government vision to make remote working a permanent feature of Ireland’s workforce in a way that can benefit all – economically, socially and environmentally. Through the proposed legislation we will, for the first time, provide a legal framework for requesting remote work. It will also provide clarity to...