Results 2,321-2,340 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, who has responsibility for insurance, to speak to the Deputy on this issue. We have seen an improvement in the past year or so in terms of availability, with people getting quotes for public liability insurance. The costs have not come down but there is greater availability.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Sometimes there can be difficulties with particular events.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are committed to having a referendum on the public ownership of water.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We do not have the wording or the date for it yet, so I cannot commit to November. It is important that the wording of any constitutional change is got right.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We know why that is. It is because it is open to interpretation by the courts. The power is taken from here to the courts to decide what is possible and what is not. I must say that there are no proposals of which I am aware, from any party in this House, to privatise Irish Water. I understand people want the referendum to give them a reassurance that this will not happen, but we must...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I might ask the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, to speak to him about it directly today. We all believe that shoplifting, larceny and such crimes should be taken seriously. It is not just a case of something being taken from a shop. It jeopardises businesses and, potentially, the employment of the people working in those businesses. In...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Irish Water has a capital programme of over €1 billion a year, and it is there to provide water and wastewater to free up lands for housing. Understandably, it prioritises those sites where the most housing can be delivered first, and that makes sense from my point of view. There is a specific programme for small towns and villages to allow them to have the water services they need...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I believe every town and village should be able to increase its population and have a natural increase. We will be sitting down with Irish Water over the course of the year to see whether we can provide it with additional funding to service more sites but, as I said earlier, the bottlenecks we face in Ireland are no longer a lack of money. We have never had a bigger budget for housing than...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: It is not quite that but it is certainly a commitment to extending the hours and improving the services in Waterford.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We have a second cath lab now in Waterford. It is great that we have it. I visited it in the last few weeks. I want to thank all the Deputies who voted for the budget that paid for it-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----but I do not think the Deputy is one of them. The next step, and I discussed this with the management and the doctors when I visited, is to get that second cath lab commissioned and staffed and to extend the hours to a seven-day-a-week service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. That is what they want to do and I support them in wanting to do that.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Moving to 24-7 is a future step. It needs to be subject to further review and we need to be sure we can staff it, and that is a serious point. We need to be sure it is safe.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: In all of Leinster, there are 2.5 million people, and we have been able to staff only two cath labs 24-7. Asking skilled people to work 24-7 for the rest of their lives is a big ask and it is one that will be hard to do. Certainly, we would like to do it, but the next step, and this is the step we are committed to making happen, is a seven-day service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Legislation will be required in this area to implement the EU directive and turn it into Irish law, and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, are working on that. I do not have a timeline on it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The ESB recorded a massive profit, of €847 million, as she said, so we will be taking a large part of that from it, both in terms of the tax on its profits - let us not forget that - and also through the special dividend we are taking this year. We will ring-fence that money to help families and businesses with the high cost of energy, and people have my commitment on that. I do not...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am always curious to hear when any Deputy in this House or any politician starts a contribution by telling somebody what they think because it is usually a prelude to a strawman or a trope, and that is basically what Deputy Barry has engaged in once again. I do not believe that there is an acceptable level of homelessness. I certainly do not believe the current levels of homelessness are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are the Government that brought in two eviction bans. We are the Government that brought in cost rental housing and made a new form of public housing possible for the first time, and we are going to ramp that up in the years ahead. How does any of that fit in with the ideological trope Deputy Barry has tried to impose on us?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy may have forgotten this but I led a minority Government for three years - the previous one - and it lasted for a lot longer than anyone thought it would. There have been times in this Dáil when this Government did not have a majority, yet we have won the votes and won them by clear margins and we will do so again today. I can reassure the Deputy that this Government is built...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: A number of different funds are operated by the European Union through the European Commission and there are very strict rules around those funds. One of those funds is the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. Ireland secured just over €1 billion from the fund but we are limited in how we can spend it. For example, we are able to spend it on upgrading our ports facilities and we have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We would have liked to have spent a lot of it helping businesses, for example, and the agricultural sector but in order to do so, we have to demonstrate that those businesses have lost their profits or have gone into the red solely as a consequence of Brexit. Given the increased trade that has occurred between Britain and Ireland, the performance of business and rising incomes, this did not...