Results 6,021-6,040 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: In building towards recovery, it must be recognised that not all previous jobs will return, while capacity constraints may emerge in other areas.  Fundamentally, the Government’s labour market approach is  about developing people and their potential through opportunities to reskill and upskill and supporting individuals to secure and remain in sustainable and quality...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Social Media (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I would like to re-assure the Deputy that I am aware of the genuine concerns of social media content moderators. I have previously met with them, and their representatives, and I have also raised their concerns with one of the primary social media companies, on whose behalf content moderation work is carried out. It must be emphasised that there is already, in Ireland, a strong legislative...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Data Protection (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: It is not clear whether the Deputy is referring to cyber security breaches or more generally to personal data breaches under the GDPR, which would include the inadvertent disclosure of personal data to third parties.  Since 2018 there have been no cyber security breaches of ICT systems directly controlled and managed by my Department. In that period, there was one incident where...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 my Department established a dedicated Business Supports Call Centre to provide information to business owners seeking assistance following the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic. It assisted businesses in identifying the relevant business supports for which they are eligible and directing businesses on how and where to access grants, loans,...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Protected Disclosures (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The table attached sets out the number of protected disclosures made to my Department in each of the past five years and to date in 2021.  I am informed by my officials that in four of these, the matters raised were not the subject of areas of responsibility of the Department and had been also separately raised with the relevant Government Department.  The nature of the protected...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Foreign Direct Investment (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 147 and 148 together. IDA Ireland do not intend to set up an office in Israel. A request for tender for a part-time Israel based Business Development Consultant was issued on 26 April 2021. The Business Development Consultant will be expected to identify Israeli-headquartered companies with potential for investing in Ireland. IDA Ireland has not yet awarded...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Trade Agreements (1 Jun 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 152 and 153 together. The Economic and Sustainability Impact Assessment of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement was commissioned by my Department through an open competitive tender process. The Request for Tender was published on the eTenders website and in the Official Journal of the European Union in December 2019. Five bids were received for the tender...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not aware of it. The Department does receive notifications of redundancies and sometimes of acquisitions. I have not seen this come across my desk yet. It might be that it falls under the transfer of undertakings and the staff would receive protections under that, but I would have to check it out. I will ask my officials to make contact with the company and see what we can do.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I should say again for the record that the 105-minute rule only applies indoors and only applies where tables are less than 2 m apart. It will be a decision, and I appreciate an expensive decision, for restaurants and pubs as to how they configure their tables. The guidelines are not the final word on this and will be reviewed in a few weeks' time if the epidemiological position continues...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: People have a social obligation to pay their bills and taxes and settle their debts because if they do not do so, they pass those bills and costs onto society and onto other people. That is why they have a moral obligation to do the right thing. I appreciate there will be individual circumstances where people cannot pay for one reason or another. Whether the HSE uses debt collection...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to engage on the issue of Shannon, alongside my colleagues. I have already been talking to Aer Lingus. As the Deputy knows, to secure the future of the airport we will need to allow people to return to international travel again. The Deputy also will be aware that for some time, her party thought the travel restrictions we brought in were not strict enough. I am glad that she...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It is the responsibility of the Residential Tenancies Board to make sure properties are registered. There seem to be a lot of unregistered properties, from my own sense of things, particularly in our city centres, including Dublin and Cork, and that is a real problem in terms of taxes unpaid and tenants being unprotected. I know the board has...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I take this opportunity to commend the professionalism of all the gardaí involved in securing a safe outcome to the very dangerous situation that occurred in Whitechapel, Clonsilla, the other day. I particularly want to recognise the bravery of the two detectives who were on the scene. On behalf of the Government, I wish them both a rapid and complete recovery. ...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am as keen as he is to get back to watching a match and getting back on the stands. I am increasingly confident that is going to be possible over the course of the summer. We will make a decision on this at the Cabinet meeting on Friday. I can say that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Minister of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I should point out that the time limit of 105 minutes, or just under two hours, applies only indoors and only when the tables are not more than 2 m apart, so if the tables are more than 2 m apart, there is no such time limit. The reason for it is that if people spend more than two hours in each other's presence in the same room, they are considered to be close contacts, and it is to avoid an...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I express my admiration for the Deputy’s commitment to this issue, which I know she has raised on a number of occasions on behalf of parents and children. I cannot make any commitment today but, once again, she has put it firmly on my radar and that will feed into the discussions we have tonight and tomorrow. I think the indication given by the Minister, Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I will check that out and speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about it. As the Deputy knows, in the rent pressure zones, which cover the vast majority of tenancies in the country, the maximum increase is 4%. I did not envisage that people would be able to apply a retrospective year. An 8% increase for anyone would be a very large increase in any one year. I must...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: The Government's position, based on the advice of the Attorney General, is that legislation of that nature is not permitted because trade is an EU competence. I know there are alternative views but it is certainly the view of the Government's legal adviser - it was also the view of his predecessor - that legislation of that nature would not stand because trade is an EU competence, not a...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: It is remarkable that people have so little to say about those territories.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge, as does the Government, that the taxi industry has been severely damaged by the pandemic. Taxi drivers have incurred enormous economic losses, much more so than the average person. It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that the Government has done a lot to help already. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced a €15 million package last year....