Results 40,081-40,100 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: National Security (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Question Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. I can assure the House that the State’s security is a priority for the Government and, in this context, I would emphasise that we already have in place functioning services which carry out significant and important roles in protecting the State and the people, notably An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: National Security (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I want to put on the record that the Irish authorities have been very successful in recent months in stopping drugs being smuggled into the country. I want to recognise the contribution of An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and the Revenue Commissioners, which work in consort with counterparts in other parts of Europe and around the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 16, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments and considers policy matters in relation to the European Union and international issues. It most recently met on 4 December, when it looked ahead to the EU-western Balkans summit which took place in...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputies for their questions. In response to Deputy Alan Farrell, I have received an acknowledgement from President von der Leyen of the letter I co-wrote with Prime Minister Sánchez but I have not received a detailed reply from her as yet. The matter was taken up by the Tánaiste at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday and there was a discussion about it among the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Northern Ireland (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 24, inclusive, together. The return of the power-sharing Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly is hugely welcome. I was very pleased to travel to Stormont on 5 February to meet the new First and deputy First Ministers and other members of the Executive Committee of Ministers. While in Belfast, I met the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. I...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Northern Ireland (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Brendan Smith asked about the legacy Bill. He raises these issues regularly in the Chamber. I welcome that because it keeps them on the agenda. I will certainly continue to discuss them with Prime Minister Sunak any time we meet. Deputy Durkan asked about the Executive and the assembly. I am keen to work with them and to work closely...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Northern Ireland (20 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Yes. The Deputy might send me a note. I am aware of the issue but am not 100% across it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as a cuid ceisteanna. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil fadhb mhór againn leis na seirbhísí sin agus tá brón orm faoi. I know from my own experience, having worked in medicine as a doctor in what seems a long time ago now, that the problem of failures and inadequate services when it comes to spinal surgery, scoliosis and spina...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. Is fadhb mhór í agus is tubaiste é i mo thuairim agus táimid ag lorg níos mó eolais agus ag iarraidh an fhadhb sin a réiteach. I have met the patient groups and I would be happy to meet them again. It is not my practice to organise meetings on the floor of the House, but I will be happy to meet them again as soon as there is a gap in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: No, it is not the point. The Deputy had used misinformation about the waiting lists here in the House.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: She has also claimed that the Minister said that he did not know where the money was spent. That is not what he said. It was spent on 200 staff, more beds, a new theatre-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----and a new MRI scanner. If the Deputy and her party honestly want to be involved in helping us to come up with a solution, which should not be political football, they need a different approach.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. Ireland is a very good country in which to raise a child. Out of 200 countries in the world, we are in the top ten or 20 in almost everything. We have very good maternal and neonatal health services. We have among the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. We have a very good education system with among the best education outcomes in the world. We have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I will clarify one point and I appreciate I was not clear. When I say it will take more than one Government to solve some of these problems, I do not mean two Governments over ten years; I mean this Government has a year to run and this problem is not going to be solved within a year. The opening of the new children's hospital next year and everything around that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: That is for a lot of different reasons and much of the time, unfortunately, it is in peripheral locations where consultants, especially Irish ones, are not willing to work and therefore we rely-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----on people to come from other parts of the world who are willing to work in places that sometimes Irish doctors are not. I wish to clarify again the recruitment restrictions that exist do not apply to filling consultant posts on a permanent basis.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. First of all, the State has a construction company and it is called the LDA. It was established in 2019. It got off to a slow start, but it is really getting going now. The Deputy will know Shanganagh in his constituency, where hundreds of social and affordable houses are being built. He likes to claim there is none in his constituency, but there are hundreds being...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----because the LDA is a body you voted against the establishment of.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I have been sent a very long list by Deputy Carroll MacNeill just now, and indeed previously by Deputy Devlin, of all the developments in your own constituency you have objected to-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----on ideological grounds because-----