Results 39,361-39,380 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The answer to the Deputy's question is that the Government makes these decisions. The Government acts collectively, signed off on the budget as a collective and accepts collective responsibility for the budget, including the health dimension of it, and ultimately, of course, it is a decision of the Dáil because it is the Dáil that votes on Estimates and it is the only body that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Every Minister around the Cabinet table looked for more in the budget package - whether on the tax side or the spending side. The Head of the Government - the Taoiseach - looked for more in the budget package than was possible. That is the reality of putting a budget together. Every agency, every Department and every Minister including the Department of the Taoiseach and the Taoiseach-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The answer is "Yes." The answer is that was the case for every agency, every Department, every Minister and every Minister of State in the entire Government. That has always been the case. That is how budgets are done. People make a bid for a large amount of money, and they only get a fraction of what they ask for.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: That is how budgets are done. The Deputy's use of the words "recruitment embargo" is deliberately misleading. As always, she is misleading the public.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: An embargo is a ban on recruitment. There is no ban on recruitment.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The HSE will allowed to increase its total number of staff next year by 2,000. Where there is a restriction it is only where the HSE has already hired the number of people it is allowed to hire for a grade.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: When we allocate money for therapists, psychologists and consultants I do not want to see that money being diverted to hire extra managers, administrators and doctors who are underqualified. That has to stop.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is of enormous importance to people in counties Cork and Waterford and the other parts of the country affected by flooding, not just in the past few weeks but also in recent years. I had the chance to visit Midleton last week, which is a town I know well. I have seen a lot of flood damage in my time, but this at a different scale. The...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I was struck by some of the people I met, who told me they were affected by the floods in 2015. Nobody could give them a guarantee it would not happen again in a few months' or a few years' time, long before the flood relief scheme is in place. We will push that as quickly as we can. We have 50 done. They worked in Bandon, Douglas, Togher and in the Tolka in Dublin. We know they work,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: In my 20 years in politics, I have often been compared with a particular British politician, but Jeremy Corbyn is not the one.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: This is the first time I have been compared with or aligned to him, as a politician. I know I have moved to the centre in my middle age. I did not think I had moved quite that far left, but I thank the Deputy for giving us something to ponder. The Deputy is right to say my party has been in office in various coalitions since 2011. We have not achieved everything we sought to achieve,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: When you look at Government spending, you cannot just look at capital expenditure; you also have to look at current expenditure. That covers areas like social protection, education and healthcare. Most of our spending is current, not capital. When you look at capital projects, you cannot just look at the ones valued at more than €200 million. You have to look at them in the round....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I agree that road safety has to be of paramount concern for all of us. I am shocked at the number of lives that have been lost on our roads so far this year. I extend my condolences to the families and communities affected. There are many aspects to road safety, including car safety, the quality of roads, speeding, behaviour and education. I accept that animals on the road can be a road...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I might ask the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, to engage with the Deputy directly during the week. As he knows, the Minister of State has responsibility for nature, heritage and electoral reform and holds the pen on this issue. He has advised me that we need to cull significant numbers of deer over and above the 60,000 deer which have already been culled. I...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I do not agree with her remark. The budget contains a number of things that help on housing, such as extending and increasing the rent credit to help renters, extending help to buy to help people buy their first home and a budget of over €5 billion, meaning that we will build records amounts of public housing next year, including social and cost rental housing. ...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will see the new targets in the early New Year. We will take account of Dr. Lyons's research and the advice of the Housing Commission. We will also take account of other work being done the ESRI and we will increase the housing targets in the new year. However, we need to be realistic. Housing construction can only be scaled up so quickly. We definitely do not want to cut...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to double-check with the Minister of State during the course of the day. My understanding is there is contact between the Government and the landowner. Whether this constitutes negotiations or not, I do not know, but there is certainly contact. I will ask the Minister of State to speak to the north Kildare Deputies about it. My understanding is the Government is willing to pay...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I think the far right is capable of a lot of hate. Some of them are consumed and motivated by it. I think the same goes for a lot of the far left. Both groups are very much capable of hate. They are often motivated by it and often driven by it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is a fact Deputy. We have free speech in this country.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I do not need to detail or document for the Deputy the level of hatred that is directed by the far left towards many people for many different reasons.