Results 3,481-3,500 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: As I mentioned earlier, we hear the voice of the students who have been protesting today. Students are being affected by the cost-of-living crisis just like almost everyone else in our society. We are helping by increasing the student grant and making more people eligible for it, reducing the cost of student fees, reducing the cost of public transport and, crucially, the Minister for...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I hear the voice of students today. I understand that they are being affected by the cost-of-living crisis, as are most people in our society. What was done in the budget was significant and should not be dismissed in the way the Deputy has dismissed it. What was done will be worth hundreds of euro to some students and thousands to others. There is a €1,000 reduction in the student...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The second cath lab in Waterford is nearing completion. We expect-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We expect the handover to be completed as early as this month. In addition, the modular emergency department and outpatient facility are scheduled to be equipped and commissioned in the first quarter of next year. That will facilitate the expansion of the hours of the permanent pacemaker implantation, PPI, service and the cardiology service in Waterford. There will be a challenge around...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: There are 451 beds in the hospital.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I join the Deputy in welcoming the students from Skibbereen. It is a very fine town. I had a chance to visit it a couple months ago. They are most welcome on their visit to Dublin. What are we doing to help students? There is a €1,000 reduction in the student fee, and a permanent reduction of €500 will kick in from next year. Bear in mind that student fees in Northern...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am not a dentist, so I cannot comment on the dental question. As a doctor, the jury is out on the idea of an annual checkup, quite frankly. Sometimes annual checkups pick up illnesses and abnormalities that would not be picked up until later. Sometimes early intervention can result in better outcomes, but it can also result in a large number of unnecessary investigations. The Deputy...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. We should acknowledge at the outset that roughly half of carbon tax is paid by businesses and the other half by individuals. It varies a good deal from one individual to another. It is not just a rural-urban matter. It depends on how big your house is and how you heat it, whether you drive and what type of car you drive. There are many things people can do to reduce...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: No it is not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Once again, the Minister for Transport does not issue public transport licences. That is not his function. The NTA does so on the basis of the law, regulations and certain criteria. I do not know why it refused that licence. From what the Deputy tells me, there is not an alternative service available. Sometimes it will refuse an application if an existing Bus Éireann service is...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The reason we do not want to do that is because, as Deputy Bacik knows, any time you nationalise something you have to compensate the owners. Even is we were to nationalise Corrib for two, three, four or ten years, we would have to compensate the owners at a cost of many billions of euro. I would rather spend those many billions of euro helping people to reduce their bills than compensating...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this important issue. I appreciate that University Hospital Limerick is not just a hospital for Limerick, but for a whole region, including north Tipperary, Clare and the wider County Limerick. This morning, there were 21 patients on trolleys in Limerick. Eleven had been on trolleys for more than nine hours. That is a bad situation and is not acceptable at...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: No decision at this stage has been made by the Government in relation to an elective hospital in the mid-west. It is open for consideration. I do not think it is a bad idea at all. I am realistic about it because I know how long it takes, believe me, to get a hospital through design and planning and then built. Realistically, it would take six years. In the meantime, the mid-west region...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure that is entirely true. If we rewound to 20 years ago, when neither my party nor that of the Deputy was in government, and projected ahead, I doubt we would have projected the population of the country would be 5.2 million, as it is now. I doubt we would have projected we would have extended the opportunity of higher and further education to so many as we do now. I am thankful...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in people who are homeless and need to access emergency accommodation. I am thankful that we are able to provide emergency accommodation for almost everyone who needs it. We do not see, or at least we very rarely see, families having to sleep on the streets or sleep in cars, as is often the case in other countries. Nobody wants us to end up in that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is right to say we can learn from other countries but we should not be naive about what things look like in other countries either. Anyone who has walked the streets of Paris or Marseilles will see the kind of homelessness problem that exists there and how much worse it has got in the past ten or 20 years. I acknowledge the Deputy does not think there is any quick fix to these...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The rise in the cost of living is affecting everyone and it is affecting students too. We understand that. We get that. Students want their voices heard and, by protesting today, they are making sure that their voices are heard. They will be heard in this House and by this Government. I will give the Deputy a few examples of what we have announced only in the past few weeks, such as a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Judicial Reviews (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Details of judicial reviews taken against my Department during the period in question are set out in the table below. Responsibility for the Protection of Employees (Employer’s Insolvency) Act 1984 transferred to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from the Minister for Social Protection in October 2020. Judicial reviews relating to provisions of this Act prior to October...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: National Minimum Wage (13 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Since the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in 2000, the National Minimum Wage has been adjusted twelve times. Since 2015 the Low Pay Commission has been responsible for making recommendations to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the National Minimum Wage under the terms of the National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015. The adult rate currently stands at...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Departmental Staff (12 Oct 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The table below sets out the details of staff of my Department, by grade, who are assigned on a full-time basis to provide support to the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in order for that Department to fulfil its areas of responsibility in respect of providing for the need of those seeking international protection and persons categorised by the virtue of...