Results 3,681-3,700 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: You start with the objective, not the right. I am not against it but there is little point in securing a right that is meaningless. We need to think through the whole pathway. If we required employers to recognise a union when 50% of the workers want that, fine, but what then? Does it change anything if there is not good faith engagement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Do you not still have to have balance? Do you not still have to have shareholders-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It might not. That is the point I am making.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: How do you force someone to talk to you?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That is the stuff that has to be worked out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The changes we intend to meet are in the context of that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know about that. We will come back to the Deputy on that. I take the Deputy's point on local elections. I had the pleasure to visit Chile in March as part of the St. Patrick's Day visits. An interesting thing they had there was a constitutional convention. The people decided to reject the new constitution but when they elected the assembly they had gender quotas. More women...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It would be interesting to see if they would. Of course if people volunteer to participate in a pilot scheme then it is not a genuine one. A pilot scheme must use a random sample in order to be real.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: No, I am not. What I am going to do is publish the interesting research. It is lays out the pros and cons not just of doing it as a policy, which no country has done, but also the problems with all of the pilot schemes that have been done around the world, which have largely failed for lots of different reasons. Where the initiative can work is if a country has massive oil or mineral...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has made a valid point. The Chairperson asked about flexible working. As she will be aware, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is bringing through the legislation for flexible working that is just for parents and carers and derives from an EU directive. I am trying to do legislation on remote working, which is a bit trickier as it is hard to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The intention, at the moment anyway, is to give the option to seek flexible working to parents and carers because they need it in a way that people who are not parents and carers do not. Sometimes rights need to be given to parents and carers that do not need to be given to people who are not parents and carers. We just need to bear that in mind too. The WRC needs more staff. It got...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, will do. In my experience, a realistic timeframe for a referendum is a year from the time the Government decides to do so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That is not a matter for me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: It is a matter for Government. There is a number of potential referendums on the list. As a Government we must decide which ones to do and how many we can do in any one day. We can do a lot but there are risks in holding four or five referendums on the one day. In my first speech after being elected Taoiseach in 2017, I said we would have a referendum on the eighth amendment within a...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Joint Labour Committees (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Representative members are, in accordance with Section 2 of the Fifth Schedule to the Industrial Relations Act, 1990, appointed to all Joint Labour Committees (JLC’s) by the Labour Court. The Labour Court carries out its functions in this regard independently of the Minister and Government.  The Minister nominates an independent Chair and Deputy Chair. The Labour Court, before...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I might come back to the Deputy on the well-being and gender budgeting, and defer to the Department of Finance on that issue. I do not want to give the Deputy an inaccurate answer. In my Department, every time a significant decision is made that requires a decision or information, we bring a memorandum to Government on which a gender analysis is conducted as to the impact, if any, of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Not as a focus to be honest. The focus will be the cost-of-living crisis, housing, improving healthcare and all the issues that are top of the agenda of people when I knock on their doors. As the Senator knows, I was one of the people who-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: So I talk to you, we disagree and that is it.

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Financial Resolution No. 6 – General (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on budget 2023. I am sharing my time with the Ministers of State, Deputies English and Calleary. This is my third budget as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In these three years, we have experienced many ups and downs. From Brexit to Covid restrictions to soaring inflation, we live in interesting...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Cybersecurity Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Driving the digital transformation of enterprise, and in particular among SMEs is a central objective of the National Digital Strategy, Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework. Digital technologies have the power to transform small businesses, opening up new opportunities, increasing productivity and efficiency, and building resilience. In line with the National Digital...