Results 3,621-3,640 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am afraid I do not have detailed information on that issue. I know this is an issue that has been raised several times in the House and my colleague, Deputy O’Dowd, is very vocal on it. I might come back to the Deputy with more information when I have it, because I am not sure what the status of those inquiries are at the moment.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I know revaluation causes a great deal of stress for business people. I have been through it in my constituency, as others have. It works out cost-neutral in the round. Some businesses see increased rates and others see decreases in them but it works out even in the round. I believe if we were to defer the increases for those whose rates are being increased, we would...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I can absolutely assure the Deputy that this Government and I personally oppose racism in all its forms. I say that not just as somebody who is biracial but also as somebody who served on a local authority and never once voted against Traveller accommodation or social housing. I dislike the Deputy’s attempt to try to tar us all with the one brush there, which is unfair. On those...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for his question. When I meet with hoteliers, and I do very regularly, the two issues they raise with me most are, first, the struggle they have to recruit and retain staff. We are helping that through the work permit system, providing training and other options, and by making work pay better. Some of the things the Deputy will have seen in the budget will help in that...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. First, I understand a sum of €10 million has been allocated in the budget to provide IVF services. The provision of State funding for IVF services is long overdue in my view. There is some help already through the tax system but it is not enough. I am glad that money has been provided. A big job of work is to be done in establishing the criteria as to who...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I appreciate the Deputy's sincerity in this matter. We should not forget that we are experiencing war in Europe. For the first time in nearly a century, we see the horrors of a war of this scale on our Continent. Some 5 million people have had to leave Ukraine, and roughly 1% of those have had to come to Ireland. That is 50,000 people, however, which is a lot of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, will be able to give precise information on this today if she has not released it already. The rules for the Christmas bonus are very clear. A person must be on a long-term social welfare payment for a period of time before qualifying for the Christmas bonus. That is not going to be the case for the one-off double-payment that people will receive in October....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We will clarify that but the rules are not the same as those for the Christmas bonus. There is a different set of rules that are not as strict.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Berry for raising this issue and security issues in general. He has been a very strong advocate for funding for security and the Defence Forces in particular. I recognise the contribution he makes in that regard and the fact that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has secured an additional €100 million for the Defence Forces next year. That includes pay, as it should, but...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Harkin. I am not aware of the details around that issue but I appreciate her raising it in the Chamber. I will figure out who the right Minister is and have him or her come back to the Deputy directly.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: My apologies, I missed the start of that. Is the Deputy referring to TBESS?

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We have to legislate for it first and get State aid approval. It will be back-dated to September. We anticipate we can legislate, get State aid approval and have the scheme up and running by the end of the November. That is when people will get the payments and we will back-date them to September. It is open to any business that has seen an increase of 50% or more in the unit cost of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate the sincerity of Deputy Cullinane in raising an individual case here but without having any of the information it is not possible for me to comment on it directly. I can guarantee that the Minister and the HSE are doing all they can to improve services when it comes to scoliosis and paediatric spinal surgery in general. There have been real improvements in waiting times. There...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. As I mentioned in my earlier reply, a winter plan is being developed. There will be a bespoke winter plan for Sligo, taking into account not only the hospital but also the community services in the wider area. Diagnostics can help quite soon. I know from bitter experience, both as a doctor and Minister for Health, that patients very often must wait a long time in...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. When I think about this issue, I do not just think about the financial scandal; I also think about the human impact of it, the 16,000 families affected and particularly the 25 families who have lost their homes. What we see today is a €100 million fine, the largest ever imposed on any bank, in addition to €180 million paid in compensation by the bank. To...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The figures the Deputy gave relate to new tenancies. We will know from the census figures in the next few weeks or months the real average rent paid in all of our constituencies. I look forward to seeing those figures. The rent credit the Government has agreed in the budget might be misunderstood. It is €500 per renter, not per tenancy. That means €1,000 per couple. If...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. This was a progressive budget. That is not just my opinion; the independent analysis by the Department of Finance shows that. The kinds of measures in the budget that I think will be beneficial for one-parent families are the double payment of social welfare, the increase in the working-family payment, the double payment of child benefit, the increase in the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy mentioned in his contribution, the moratorium on disconnection applies to the end of February for the vast majority of customers and to the end of March for the most vulnerable. Ideally, it should apply to everyone. Thinking through the Deputy’s question, it is difficult to know how one would apply that in the case of pay-as-you-go customers just because of the nature...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy makes a fair point. It is something that I can undertake to examine in conjunction with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. We need to find a mechanism to protect pay-as-you-go customers. It is gas bills in particular that will present a difficulty over the next few months. We...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Harkin for raising this important question and raising SUH again in the Dáil. She has raised this matter many times in the House and has spoken to me offline about it as well. According to the HSE this morning, there are seven patients on trolleys in the emergency department in Sligo, but it has been much higher on other and, indeed, in recent days. I acknowledge the...