Results 37,421-37,440 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the EU nature restoration law. We support the European Green Deal and support in principle the proposed EU regulation on nature restoration law. It was published by the Commission in June 2022 and aims to restore nature and biodiversity. The proposed regulation in its current form, however, is very ambitious and goes too far, and we have real...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----and it is not possible for me to comment on them.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: As I said, we support the European Green Deal and, in principle, the EU nature restoration law. I think all of us want to see nature restored, an end to biodiversity loss and the restoration of biodiversity across our country. There are, however, aspects of this that are very ambitious and go too far, in my view. We are carrying out a national impact assessment so we are developing a...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: There really is no allegation the Deputy would not just throw out there. There are members of the Opposition who at least have some sense of truth. There is nothing the Deputy would not throw out there. That memo was not a Cabinet memo. I am sure Deputy McDonald has read it at this stage. It does not say "Cabinet memo" on it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is a memo for advice and was sent to four Cabinet members at the time.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Yet Deputy McDonald just throws out there the statement that everyone-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----in the Cabinet saw this memo, which was not even a Cabinet memo. There is absolutely nothing-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----the Deputy would not say, whether it is true or not - and there she goes again. The issue I was briefed on was the nursing homes issue. The Deputy is trying to conflate that with a different issue.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is impossible to answer questions from somebody who just does not care-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----what is vaguely related to the truth.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Picking up on something the Deputy said earlier, the Government is putting in place a scheme to compensate people who were residents of mother and baby homes, despite the fact that nobody has found any legal liability attached to the State in that regard. There was no question of court cases, legal strategies or any of those things. The Government decided it was the right thing to do to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: That is a good idea and I welcome the offer from an Opposition party to work together on this on a collaborative basis because none of us wants to see the rise of racism in our society and none of us wants to see far-right groups or political forces taking hold in our Parliament in the way that has become the norm across the European Union. A lot of work is being done on the new national...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. We are experiencing an epidemic of domestic violence and violence against women in particular. We have a zero tolerance strategy in place to make improvements and change things in this area. I do not want to go into all the details of it here because there is too much to go through but on the particular issue of the number of refuge...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The nature of any means test is that there will always be people who are just a few euro above the threshold. No matter where the threshold is set that will unfortunately always be the case. I acknowledge the point the Deputy makes, that the income limits have not increased in a very long time and have not taken account of inflation or rising incomes. However, the number of people who...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy knows as well as I do that Coillte is not being sold. That is not the case. No public land is being sold and nor will any public land fall into private ownership. The State is an investor in the Irish Strategic Forestry Fund but I am sure we will have a chance to debate this and go through the facts at another stage.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for reminding me about this issue. As I am sure he will know, Deputy Carey is also onto me about this regularly. I do not have an update on it. I thought some money was allocated last year but maybe that is not the case.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It has obviously not been fully agreed for this year and future years but I am keen to make sure that it is agreed.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. We will certainly be happy to check out that. If the Deputy wants to send some details to me or to the office of the Minister, Deputy Foley, we will check it out. It happens sometimes in government that different schemes under different Departments are not quite aligned. Where anomalies exist, we try to fix them.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. On the issue of emergency department overcrowding in general, we have made a lot of progress since the early part of this year when we saw record numbers of people being forced to wait on a trolley for a hospital bed. We see now, and have seen for the past couple of days, that the number waiting for a bed is running at a lower level than was the case this time last year....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Feb 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I was not aware that west Cork was the wedding capital of Ireland but if that is the case, I am willing to accept it.