Results 37,981-38,000 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: In my previous response, I acknowledged the housing crisis and housing emergency, and the impact that is having on people. I acknowledged that many times. I continue to do so because it is important and right to do so. I have not said we have turned the corner on the housing crisis. I never said that. The Tánaiste said we turned the corner on new home construction-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----which is clearly a different thing. He is correct in that regard. When I see posters for the Deputy's party, I see the three things it says it stands for. One of those things is honest politics. It is not honest politics to falsify quotes, misquote me or misrepresent the Tánaiste. That is not honest politics. We are hoping for a different type of politics from the Deputy. It...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----and more first-time buyers bought their first home in January this year than any year since 2010. Is it because she does not want those things to be true?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am always curious to hear when any Deputy in this House or any politician starts a contribution by telling somebody what they think because it is usually a prelude to a strawman or a trope, and that is basically what Deputy Barry has engaged in once again. I do not believe that there is an acceptable level of homelessness. I certainly do not believe the current levels of homelessness are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are the Government that brought in two eviction bans. We are the Government that brought in cost rental housing and made a new form of public housing possible for the first time, and we are going to ramp that up in the years ahead. How does any of that fit in with the ideological trope Deputy Barry has tried to impose on us?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy may have forgotten this but I led a minority Government for three years - the previous one - and it lasted for a lot longer than anyone thought it would. There have been times in this Dáil when this Government did not have a majority, yet we have won the votes and won them by clear margins and we will do so again today. I can reassure the Deputy that this Government is built...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: A number of different funds are operated by the European Union through the European Commission and there are very strict rules around those funds. One of those funds is the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. Ireland secured just over €1 billion from the fund but we are limited in how we can spend it. For example, we are able to spend it on upgrading our ports facilities and we have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We would have liked to have spent a lot of it helping businesses, for example, and the agricultural sector but in order to do so, we have to demonstrate that those businesses have lost their profits or have gone into the red solely as a consequence of Brexit. Given the increased trade that has occurred between Britain and Ireland, the performance of business and rising incomes, this did not...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Irish Water has a capital programme of over €1 billion a year, and it is there to provide water and wastewater to free up lands for housing. Understandably, it prioritises those sites where the most housing can be delivered first, and that makes sense from my point of view. There is a specific programme for small towns and villages to allow them to have the water services they need...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I believe every town and village should be able to increase its population and have a natural increase. We will be sitting down with Irish Water over the course of the year to see whether we can provide it with additional funding to service more sites but, as I said earlier, the bottlenecks we face in Ireland are no longer a lack of money. We have never had a bigger budget for housing than...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is not quite that but it is certainly a commitment to extending the hours and improving the services in Waterford.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We have a second cath lab now in Waterford. It is great that we have it. I visited it in the last few weeks. I want to thank all the Deputies who voted for the budget that paid for it-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----but I do not think the Deputy is one of them. The next step, and I discussed this with the management and the doctors when I visited, is to get that second cath lab commissioned and staffed and to extend the hours to a seven-day-a-week service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. That is what they want to do and I support them in wanting to do that.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Moving to 24-7 is a future step. It needs to be subject to further review and we need to be sure we can staff it, and that is a serious point. We need to be sure it is safe.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: In all of Leinster, there are 2.5 million people, and we have been able to staff only two cath labs 24-7. Asking skilled people to work 24-7 for the rest of their lives is a big ask and it is one that will be hard to do. Certainly, we would like to do it, but the next step, and this is the step we are committed to making happen, is a seven-day service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Legislation will be required in this area to implement the EU directive and turn it into Irish law, and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, are working on that. I do not have a timeline on it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The ESB recorded a massive profit, of €847 million, as she said, so we will be taking a large part of that from it, both in terms of the tax on its profits - let us not forget that - and also through the special dividend we are taking this year. We will ring-fence that money to help families and businesses with the high cost of energy, and people have my commitment on that. I do not...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: A number of people and different groups in the health service are currently balloting with regard to safe staffing levels. We acknowledge there are many parts of the health service in which staffing is too low. We are happy to engage with unions and representatives on how we can resolve that but we need to put it into a wider context, which is the fact that we are hiring more healthcare...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the concerns parents and staff have about these school projects. There are one or two such projects in every Deputy's constituency, including my own. It is a matter about which we are all very concerned. As a result of the rising cost of construction and the fact that the Department of Education is doing such a good job on building new schools and extending existing schools,...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, who has responsibility for insurance, to speak to the Deputy on this issue. We have seen an improvement in the past year or so in terms of availability, with people getting quotes for public liability insurance. The costs have not come down but there is greater availability.