Results 38,101-38,120 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Offices (28 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I would encourage the Deputy to condemn any violence by protestors, or any attacks on police as well.

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I move: That Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Government. This is a good Government of three parties working together. We led Ireland through the pandemic, saving lives and livelihoods. We have secured a new agreement on Northern Ireland and Brexit, preventing a hard border. We have helped families and businesses to weather the cost-of-living crisis through...

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is about competition for attention on the Opposition benches and on the left wing of politics and-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----about four parties trying to outdo each other-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----to come up with new and more dramatic language to describe the housing situation-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----as though somehow it would actually help anyone. When it comes to solutions, we largely get utopian populist ones. The latest of these is a promise from the Labour Party to provide a million homes in ten years. When asked how that number was arrived at or how it was realised, the leader of the Labour Party had no answers. When pressed, she took a page straight out of the book of Sinn...

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I know the Labour Party does not have confidence in this Government, but it seems to me that it has long lost confidence in itself. It does not know whether to stand over its decisions in government, and say it would do it all again for the good of the country if given the chance, or whether like a character from The Crucible, it should deny its own truth, recant, confess, and purge itself...

Confidence in Government: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is a truth never acknowledged, but I am going to say it. Every party in this House seems to believe the housing crisis was terribly mismanaged, except for the periods when they were in government. It is remarkably convenient, but not coherent. No wonder Sinn Féin is so happy. It gets to be consistent and direct its ire at everyone, including the Labour Party. Of course, if one...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. We do not believe that extending the winter eviction moratorium to December, or January, or April, or whatever the Deputy’s policy is this week, is a solution. We think it will just make homelessness worse, but at a later point. The solution is a different one: it is more social housing, it is the tenant in situ scheme, it is more supply, it is tax changes to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I did not say that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I think I have answered that question four or five times now, both this week and last. The only thing the Deputy’s ears are deaf to is the answer because she just does not want to hear it. She has renewed her call to me - fair enough. Let me renew my call to her. There are three ways in which the Sinn Féin Party can help us to alleviate this terrible...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I again ask all Sinn Féin Deputies, Senators and councillors to please do so.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Bacik for raising this important issue, which is being discussed across the country today. The report of the independent review group is shocking. It will shock anyone who reads its. Issues with bullying and harassment in the Defence Forces, some of a sexual nature, has been reported on before but never so starkly. It is clear that attempts made to change things - and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: There are a number of recommendations in the report, 13 in total, and we have accepted them all. There are some we can implement very quickly. For example, we can enact legislation to amend the Defence Act 1954 to provide a legislative basis to enable allegations of any type of sexual assault in the Defence Forces to be referred to An Garda Síochána rather than the internal...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important and sensitive issue. In Ireland in the round, we have really good palliative care provided by some really top-class professionals. End-of-life care has improved considerably down the years, including our hospices, hospice home care and paediatric palliative care, particularly with the State funding of the LauraLynn hospice, which I was involved...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding palliative care provision in south Tipperary and the south east, I am told there are two clinical nurse co-ordinators for children with life-limiting conditions in the south east. They support the provision of safe care in the home. They are working to ensure a care plan based on patient need is in place in each case. However, there is something amiss here. We need a sustainable...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Thanks very much, Deputy. There are a lot of vacant homes around the country. The Deputy sees them on his travels - I see them on my travels as well - around the country. That is particularly the case in more rural areas like south Kerry. Our colleague, Deputy Griffin, has documented this and photographed it. He has done a whole dossier on it, which he has shared with me. Deputy...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think that a CPO should ever be the first option, but it should be an option that we have if people refuse to sell or bring a property into use and sit on a derelict property for years. That is why we have the fund to do that. Some local authorities have led the way on that. Others have been far too slow. The whole issue of vacant properties is a very interesting one. The...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. It will absolutely be survivor centred and survivor led, but it will be chaired by a judge or retired judge. Very simply, the timeline is as soon as possible. In fairness to the Tánaiste, though, he wants to engage with the people most affected by this before coming up with terms of reference and committing to a timeline. I think that is only reasonable. There...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I have not yet received the report. I understand the Minister for Health has received it in recent days. The normal process would be for him to consider it, to bring it to Cabinet and to publish thereafter. I anticipate it is only a matter of weeks, but I do not know for sure. I have not seen any proposals to establish a special committee on the matter.