Results 35,081-35,100 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Tourism Promotion (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The programme for Government includes a commitment to introduce a new procedure for answering oral questions by State agencies. The chief executive of every State funded agency will be required to attend the relevant Oireachtas committee on a regular basis to answer oral parliamentary questions that can be submitted by any member. There will also be a requirement that State agencies answer...
- Tourism Promotion (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I will do so.
- Sports Capital Programme (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I cannot answer this question on behalf of the Taoiseach. I attended the GAA congress dinner in April but did not attend the congress itself. For that reason I cannot elaborate further.
- Sports Capital Programme (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The question before me asks the Taoiseach to elaborate.
- Sports Capital Programme (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: In a nutshell, I attended the dinner but did not make any comment.
- Air Services (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 38 together. I also refer the Deputy to my response to Priority Question No.1. The market for air services in the European Union is fully liberalised so it is a matter for the airlines themselves to decide what routes they will serve based on their own commercial judgments. As detailed in my response to the priority question, the Government is...
- Air Services (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I would love to know the answer to that.
- Air Services (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: They are ongoing and, following this evening's vote, I will attend the next meeting in this regard. Consultants are also assisting us with this. The Minister for Finance factored 1 July into the jobs initiative in terms of working out the numbers and the idea was to suspend the tax from that date but that is not a certainty. I expect to conclude discussions in the next few weeks because...
- Air Services (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: They are working on the proposals put forward by the airlines. Airlines are saying they will put on a certain number of planes and bring in a certain number of tourists. The consultants are examining these offers to ascertain how genuine they are and how many tourists would travel on particular routes. Routes to the Canaries and Malta do not generate significant tourism benefits for...
- Air Services (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: It is in this case because the airlines will present one set up assumptions and figures while the airports will present another. If I am to be satisfied that the right decision will be made, we need an external assessment of the competing claims of different airlines and airport authorities.
- National Car Test (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority has statutory responsibility for the delivery of the national car test. The RSA has overall responsibility for the operation, oversight, development, quality assurance and delivery of vehicle testing arrangements. The testing function has been carried out since January 2010 by Applus, a global private company in compliance...
- National Car Test (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I do not see a benefit in introducing additional legislation. What we need to do is to enforce the legislation we have in this country to a greater extent. That is relevant to the Deputy's other point about white collar crime. I am as frustrated as he is with the slow progress that has been achieved to date in bringing prosecutions in the banking area. I am confident they will be brought...
- National Car Test (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The report has not been submitted to me yet. Once it is, I will consider it and if there is no impediment to publishing it I would be happy to do so at that stage.
- National Car Test (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I never liked the term "systems failure". It is a bit of a cop out when it is used so often. I do not see any evidence of a systems failure here. The evidence I have seen is of people taking bribes to pass test applicants. If there are systems issues, they relate to monitoring people while they conduct the tests. That is being improved and CCTV cameras are being introduced in the test...
- Rail and Road Network (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I have responsibility for policy and overall funding for public transport and the national roads programme. The Government has announced the preparation of a new capital investment framework for these projects for the period from 2012. This will involve a review of all capital programmes and projects to establish a set of priorities that will...
- Rail and Road Network (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: I can assure the Deputy that we are looking at it and needless to say it would cost considerably more than â¬40 million to complete the next phase.
- Rail and Road Network (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputy's first contribution was to say that we should definitely proceed with metro north and his last contribution was to say that we should definitely proceed with the following phase of the western rail corridor. The problem I have is a different one as I am sure he can imagine.
- Rail and Road Network (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: Absolutely; it is prioritisation.
- Tourism Promotion (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The Government's recent jobs initiative includes a three-pronged strategy to encourage inbound tourism. The first element is the proposed abolition of the â¬3 travel tax; the second is a new growth incentive scheme recently introduced by the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA; and the third is a more targeted co-operative marketing of new air routes from key source tourism markets by Tourism...
- Tourism Promotion (1 Jun 2011)
Leo Varadkar: The figures for this year so far may be somewhat misleading in that the numbers are down across the three airports, particularly Shannon and Cork. The numbers were down for January, February and March, but up for April as a consequence of low figures for last year as a result of the ash cloud disruption, and will probably be up for May for the same reason. It will be interesting to see...