Results 37,841-37,860 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Tógfaidh mé ceisteanna Uimh. 14 go dtí 19 le chéile.   The Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy and public services. The committee covers a range of topics, including immigration and integration, in the area of social policy, with a particular focus on...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputies for their questions. Last week or the previous week, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, and I had a meeting with the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the border management unit of the Department of Justice to discuss some of the issues raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath and to examine how we can improve border security and make sure that people who should not get...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 32, inclusive, together. The newly-established Cabinet committee on children and education will oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education, including further and higher education, with a specific focus on child poverty and well-being. The first meeting of this committee will take place...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (7 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Tóibín referred to the term "transgenderism". I am not sure what that means. It is not an ideology nor a political philosophy. Trans people are people and they exist. I know people who are trans and perhaps the Deputy does too. They have always existed, although the may not have been acknowledged. When it comes to the education...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I want to be associated with your remarks, a Cheann Comhairle, and to welcome the ambassador to the Chamber. It is really good to have the British Ambassador present. I look forward to building relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom in the period ahead, in particular as the Windsor Framework is implemented. On this matter, what Deputy McDonald is trying to do here is to create...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: There are not enough properties available. What we need to do is stem the tide of small landlords leaving the market and increase the number of new landlords coming into the market. That is what the Government wants to do. We are going to do four things to make the situation better.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: First, we are going to build more social housing.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Second, we are going to ramp up cost rental.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Third, we are going to buy properties from landlords where the tenant is a social housing tenant and he or she has been served a notice to quit.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Fourth, we are going to develop and build a budget package to help landlords and help renters even more so than has been the case. Let me expand on that a little better. Last year, roughly 8,000 new social homes were built in Ireland. As the Opposition acknowledged yesterday, or at least one person in the Opposition did, that is the highest since 1975, the highest in my lifetime, and we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are going to try to get towards 12,000 additional social homes. That will make a difference. The second thing we are going to do is to ramp up cost rental. It is a new form of tenancy and public housing, developed by the previous Government and being implemented by this one. That will help people who are above the income limits for social housing. We are going to buy up more rental...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are also developing a further budget package to help tenants and to help landlords. It is not about one versus the other. As I stated, the Deputy is trying to create a divisive and false narrative that it is landlords versus renters and renters versus landlords.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I have answered the Deputy's question.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I have answered the Deputy's question.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Sinn Féin is back to its old ways again. When we ask them about their finances, we get a deafening silence.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: They run and hide.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: When I try to answer their questions, which I did try to do, they try to shout me down. What sort of party is that?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I answered the Deputy's question. Perhaps she could not hear the answer because she was too busy shouting me down, or the people behind her were too busy shouting me down. The options include social housing. We are going to build more social housing than ever before. We are ramping up cost rental, which is another option. A third option is we are going to purchase 1,500 homes where the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Let me finish, Deputy. I know you hate the truth. Look to the North, where we have had a Sinn Féin finance minister and a Sinn Féin housing minister.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (8 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Do you know how much social housing you built in Northern Ireland last year? Do you know, Deputy?