Results 4,041-4,060 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Intellectual Property (21 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: On the 12 November 2021, the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/790 was completed by way of S.I. No. 567/2021 - European Union (Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market) Regulations 2021. These Regulations strengthen the rights and protections of copyright holders in order to reflect the impact of technological advances and increased digitalisation.   The...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising these issues, which are important to people in Cavan and public transport users in particular. I do not have any information to hand but I will make sure the Minister for Transport knows the matter was raised in the Dáil and will ask him to contact the Deputy directly.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: That legislation is being drafted at the moment. I cannot give a definite timeline but the intention is to have that done before the summer recess so we can implement the measure this year. Reducing or abolishing out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare is an important part of Sláintecare. Abolishing inpatient hospital charges for children is an important step in that direction and I...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: These are budget matters and decisions will be made on them in the run-up to the budget in October. The programme for Government provides for a tax package every year, agreed by all three parties in the coalition. Therefore, there will be a tax package in the forthcoming budget. We just have to decide how best to do it. It should be targeted at middle-income earners, as the Deputy has...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I understand the strong case that is being made to extend the short-hop zone. My colleague Councillor Sharon Tolan has been leading the charge on this. Her argument is that if Kilcoole in County Wicklow, which is 55 km south of the centre of Dublin, is in the short-hop zone, Laytown, Bettystown and Drogheda should also be included in that zone....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am not familiar with that individual case but I will certainly check it out with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I can unequivocally say to the Deputy that I am opposed to the death penalty. This Government is opposed to the death penalty and we call on any country that still has it on its statute books, including Saudi Arabia, to desist and not to execute any of their citizens under...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure whether the Government has made a formal decision on this matter. We need to give consideration to the fact that we will continue to need to use natural gas as a fuel for the next number of decades. We just signed off the other day on a major investment in new power plants, which we need, and those power plants will be using natural gas in the main. While natural gas is a...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We need to do everything possible to accelerate the number of new homes being built. As I said earlier, it is accelerating. Some 25,000 new homes were built in the past 12 months, 35,000 are under construction and 45,000 are going through planning. One can really see that pipeline coming through. It took us a while to get there, and we are still only getting there, but it is coming...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I say to these businesses that we understand the pressures they are under. This is why we reduced excise and took 20 cent off petrol and 15 cent off diesel, but unfortunately we do not control those prices as they are internationally determined. This is why we put in place the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector, which is particularly important given the tourism hot spot that Cork south...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think there is any one single way that is best to help working families or middle-income people with the cost of living. There are a number of different ways. I have never been in favour of just one solution or saying there is just one solution to these challenges. Obviously, one way is through pay. This is why we increased the minimum wage this year and why I announced just this...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: On the critical skills permits, we could certainly examine that. This falls under the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy English, but obviously, he reports to me. This is something we could definitely examine.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy mentioned, the ESRI recommends a number of measures in its report. I was interested to hear spokespeople for the ESRI talk in interviews about discounts on energy bills - one of the things we have done - as another option and one that benefits lower income households more than higher income households, proportionately. They also talked about increasing income tax credits,...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I will ask Bus Éireann to take a further look at this. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, announced that from Monday, 21 February 2022 the age at which an applicant for a driving licence must supply a medical report is going to increase from 70 to 75. Drivers under 75 will no longer have to supply a medical report confirming their fitness to drive...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy McGrath must be the one who is out of touch if he needs an ESRI report this morning to tell him that we have a cost of living crisis.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Anybody filling their car with petrol or diesel-would have known that for months.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: Anyone looking at their utility bills over the past couple of months would know that. They would know we are facing a cost of living crisis, that we have high inflation and that it is largely driven by energy prices.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: On interest rates, the Deputy knows the answer to this. We have higher interest rates in Ireland relative to other countries and there are three reasons for that. They have higher bank charges than we do. In those countries they have bigger markets so there is more competition, and also in Ireland, for very good reasons, we make it very hard to repossess properties and evict people-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: -----which means often debts go unpaid for years and years. The truth is that the cost of that is socialised.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: We are very aware of the risk of famine that now arises from the food security issues that have been thrown up by Putin's invasion of Ukraine. I attended talks in Geneva earlier this week where this was very much on the agenda for trade ministers. On our humanitarian response, I am not sure exactly what is planned. I know that we have something planned through our overseas development aid...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Jun 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. We believe it is appropriate to apply inheritance tax on transfers of wealth between generations. If people are taxed on earned income, it is only fair that people should also be taxed if they inherit income. It has always been recognised, however, that where the beneficiary is a child, including certain foster children, there should be...