Results 4,021-4,040 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: Question 45: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on the fact that businesses are not viable due to high commercial rents; if she will intervene in this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11260/10]

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: On a point of order.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: I know the Minister of State is familiar with the standing orders relating to relevance. The question is about rents and it is not about scrappage schemes or any of that stuff. We are being given a stock reply from the Minister of State. It is not in order for him-----

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: -----to give an irrelevant answer.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: It is about relevance. What has a scrappage scheme got to do with rent reviews?

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: This is a case of copy and paste.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: There is no need to do that.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: The question is to do with commercial rents. We all know that commercial rents are volatile and I accept they are coming down in many sectors. However, it is clear that institutional investors, pension funds, banks and others, are not reducing their commercial rents. They do not wish to do so because they do not want to come clean about their own capital situation, that they have based...

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: We said we would freeze them and we did.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: That is not relevant.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: I reject that allegation. In most of the local authorities controlled by my party, rates have been frozen as we promised and in others they have been reduced, for example, in Fingal County Council and in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, which is controlled by Fine Gael.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister of State has made it clear he is not yet convinced that commercial rents are not being reduced sufficiently and he wants more information. Will he agree with my analysis on this matter that essentially, landlords today are behaving like they did during the Famine? In the Famine, landlords drove tenant farmers off their lands and now the big commercial institutional landlords...

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: Not the institutional landlords.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: The restaurant had to close.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: After the restaurant closed its doors.

Economic Competitiveness. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: That is not a very good example, a business forced to close.

Job Creation. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: Today is another black day for Ireland, for jobs and for the aviation industry. Earlier today, Michael O'Leary confirmed that the jobs had been lost to Dublin. I have reviewed the documents and read all the letters. Having looked at them, on reflection it appears there was an opportunity to bring either 500 or 300 aviation jobs to Dublin.

Job Creation. (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: That opportunity existed about nine months ago when SRT gave up its lease for the hangar. If at that time the DAA had acted fairly and if Ryanair had been talking to the DAA and, in particular, if the Tánaiste had been reading her mail and had taken an active role, those jobs could have been secured for Dublin and the SR Technics workers who lost their jobs, their pensions, their hope and...

Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (9 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: While I did not know Tomás Mac Giolla personally I was, when growing up in Dublin West very much aware he was one of our local Deputies. He represented the radical left tradition in west Dublin, which has often elected a Member to this House. While I do not come from that tradition and would not have shared many of Tomás Mac Giolla's views, I respect the contribution he made to politics...

Leaders' Questions (10 Mar 2010)

Leo Varadkar: That is some round trip.