Results 301-320 of 16,693 for in 'Dáil debates' speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, you did.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, you did, Deputy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: In relation to-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: In relation to the Deputy's remarks about me, I have engaged in this debate. I probably engage in it every other day in my constituency, in this House and in the media. Only a few weeks ago, I wrote a detailed article, published in the Sunday Independent, setting out what our immigration policy is and was, what the facts were and what they were not. I will keep doing that, but I need a bit...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: No, you are not. Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: There were just under 500 people on trolleys in our hospitals this morning, which is a high number and is not acceptable. It has a significant impact on their patient experience and also makes things very difficult for staff. Thankfully, most of those patients will be in beds by this evening. The level of overcrowding we have seen in our hospitals this January, thankfully, is considerably...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I will certainly commit to engage with Dublin City Council alongside the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in good faith on this. Living in Dublin city, as the Deputy does, I see how slow regeneration has been, whether it is in Dolphin, Donore Road, Emmet Road,-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: -----Pearse Street or Oliver Bond. It is a good example of why the State does not always do things better. Sometimes it takes longer and costs more. If it was done by the private sector, these would all have been built a long time ago. I know it is not as simple as that. I will commit, in good faith, to engage with the new city council CEO on it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: The cost of doing business in Ireland is very high and it is rising. We acknowledge that. Some of that is down to increased labour costs, increased energy costs, the increased cost of supplies and also the withdrawal of some temporary supports for businesses that simply cannot go on forever. There are things the Government can do to help. We will inject over €250 million in the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for his interest and knowledge on this matter. It goes without saying that the greatest drug of use and misuse in this State is alcohol and it is legal. It is associated with public order offences, child abuse and violence against women. It is associated with acute disease and chronic disease. It makes mental health worse. It is associated with suicide, public order...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I used to be a sceptic of citizens' assemblies, but over the past five or ten years I have become a fan of them. They can be really effective. We do not always accept the recommendations, nor do we have to, but we always consider them. When you put in front of 100 citizens all of the evidence, all the experts and all the advice, sometimes they come up with very good recommendations. As I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: As I say, I would like to see them and interrogate them. To come back to what the Deputy said in respect of tax, companies and people are taxed differently. If you are an individual, such as a landlord, you pay income tax. Companies do not pay income tax. They never have. Companies pay corporation profit tax and when they issue a dividend to their shareholders, those shareholders pay...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. At the outset, I want to acknowledge that there are far too many people in Ireland waiting far too long to see a specialist or get the operation they need, and that our emergency departments are very busy at the moment and that is putting staff under a lot of pressure. I am really sorry that Mr. Sheehan's grandfather had the experience...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Again, for the information of the House, we hired an extra - and I mean extra - 1,019 medical and dental staff last year. We hired an extra 2,100 nurses and midwives last year and an extra 929 health and social care professionals. Yes, there are lots of people coming and going - we have an international labour market when it comes to healthcare - but we are doing pretty well in terms of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. As I said yesterday, the Government does not want to see investment funds buying up family homes that could be bought by individual families for their own use. That is why we changed the law in 2021 in respect of new planning permissions. This particular development got planning permission in 2019 and therefore does not fall under the law we changed in 2021. That is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: No, there is tax on the dividends.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I would genuinely like to see those figures and to have a few hours to interrogate them. The law was changed in 2021. If I remember correctly, it was changed in the course of the year, so what would be particularly interesting to see are the numbers for 2022 and 2023 because that is when the change would have had an effect.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Church-State Relations (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: Like public representatives generally, I meet church leaders informally from time to time in the course of attending official or public events. The most recent formal meeting between the Office of the Taoiseach and the church leaders took place on 15 April 2021, when the now Tánaiste met the leaders of all the Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Church-State Relations (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their questions. On Deputy Tóibín's question, I put on the record that the Government is very grateful for and recognises the work done by the religious in Ireland and all over the world. Given the scandals that have affected churches and religious bodies and given the existence of religious extremism in the world, sometimes that can be forgotten, but it...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (23 Jan 2024)

Leo Varadkar: On Deputy Tóibín's questions, look, I was there in government both as Taoiseach and Tánaiste for that very dark period which was the pandemic. These were very difficult decisions to make. Everyone can be an expert in hindsight. We can only make decisions based on the information available and the advice that was put to us by experts. I have no doubt that the lockdowns saved...