Results 39,841-39,860 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the the Deputy very much for that question. I am afraid to say that this is a problem all over the country and all of us have had this experience in representing our constituents, in meeting parents whose children are waiting far too long for the assessments they need and then, after that, the therapies they need. It might vary from area to area, or one community healthcare...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think that parents having to pay for therapies or assessments is the solution but I understand why many parents have to do that because they are waiting so long. There is a mechanism now by which the HSE can refund part of the cost of doing that and we want to expand that during the year but I do not think that is the solution on its own. It might help in some cases but it is...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Economic Policy (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council published its annual Competitiveness Challenge report in September 2023. The Council’s Report outlined nineteen priority recommendations across a broad range of areas for Government consideration. On 29 November 2023, the Government published a comprehensive formal response to the Council's recommendations. This is the fourth year...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Programmes (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Through the Shared Island initiative, the Government is engaging with all communities to build consensus around a shared future and delivering benefits for the whole island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. The Government has so far allocated almost €250m from the Shared Island Fund, moving forward with our commitments and objectives in this area in the Programme for...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Public Sector Staff (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Director of Public Prosecutions is independent in the performance of her functions in accordance with provisions of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1974. One of the ways effect is given to this independence is that funding for the Director’s Office is provided through a separate Vote; Vote 5 – Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. While I have a role in...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Policies (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of the Taoiseach has been working with Government Departments to progress work across a number of priority areas, which include: · the new Child Poverty and Well-Being Programme Office published its first Programme Plan in August and more recently a report setting out new measures in Budget 2024 to reduce child poverty and promote well-being; · progress on the...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Properties (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of the Taoiseach does not own any property. Properties occupied by the Department of the Taoiseach and the National Economic and Social Development Office - the only body under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach - are provided and managed by the Office of Public Works.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Priorities (12 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of the Taoiseach will continue to work with Government Departments to progress work across a number of areas as set out in the Department’s Statement of Strategy 2023 -2025, as follows: ·progress on the Housing for All Action Plan, to maintain strong momentum in 2024 for new homes; ·ongoing progress reports will be produced under Climate Action Plan 2023...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I do not like to see investment funds buying up family homes en masse. I know the Deputy does not either. I have said that before. However, what she has represented in the Dáil today is not the full story. As is so often the case, she has engaged in a degree of misleading behaviour. The Government did change the law. We changed the law back in May 2021 after the events in Maynooth...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I have not seen the detail of the advice to the Minister, Deputy McGrath. I expect that when I see it, I will find out that Deputy McDonald has not told the full story or given the full picture to the Irish people and that she has engaged in a degree of misrepresentation and misleading behaviour. I suspect that the advice will also say that the number of family homes bought up by investment...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----but I will double-check that. As I said earlier, the Government does not want to see family homes being bought up by investment funds. That is not the case at all. It is something we think is undesirable socially and economically. That is why we changed the law in 2021 to stop this happening. It does not apply to old permissions. This is an old permission from 2019. The Deputy's...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Like everyone in the House, I am appalled at the ongoing violence that is occurring in Gaza and, indeed, in the West Bank and Israel, where millions of people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed, mostly women and children. We should not forget there are two sides to this conflict. It is the case that many more Palestinians have died than Israelis and many more Palestinians have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: As I mentioned earlier, the Attorney General will travel to the ICJ in The Hague on 22 February and will make Ireland's intervention in respect of the case relating to Israel and Palestine and the actions happening in that regard in person. This demonstrates that we take these matters seriously and that we take the ICJ seriously. On the genocide convention case, we will adopt the same...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: There has been considerable investment in University Hospital Waterford under this Government. Just since 2019, there has been a 40% increase in staffing at the hospital. The hospital's budget is now approximately €270 million. There has been a 33% increase in the budget since 2019. There has been considerable investment in Waterford. That includes the second cath lab, which...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: In terms of clarifying the record, I think I have done that already by correspondence. Like a lot of things, investment depends on how you count it, that is, whether you count the spend when it is actually spent, which often happens after the building has been built, or when it is announced or when it is under construction. What the Deputy and I do not disagree on is that Waterford and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know many Deputies have done so, in Government parties and Opposition parties alike. We are a Government that supports enterprise and wants to make work pay. We believe it is possible to reward enterprise and reward work. However, there are interplays and balances that have to be struck, and we have to strike them right. I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Businesses, particularly small businesses, have received unprecedented support from Government over the past three or four years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we helped pay the wages and the overheads. During the energy crisis, we helped with the energy bills through TBESS. We reduced VAT to 9% on a temporary basis-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----we brought in tax warehousing and we also have a new grant which businesses will receive in the next couple of months. The sad reality is that there are a number of businesses in the State which have only got by in the past couple of years because of that State support and some of those are not viable. That is a sad truth but one no Government can simply subsidise forever. On the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: They are. The Deputy is entitled to his opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. The facts are that in the past three years, 80,000 Irish citizens left and went abroad for all sorts of different reasons. A total of 90,000 came back. That is a fact, Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I think the Deputy may be incorrect and we can check the record. I believe I said the Deputy's party only mentioned Hamas in the context of its crimes on 7 October which it says does not justify Israel's response.