Results 7,441-7,460 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: If one Deputy does not have a serious or substantive suggestion then the adage might be, "Call for a new Minister". The negotiations are under way. Everyone knows how the Common Fisheries Policy works. We are doing the best we can to make sure we secure as good a deal as possible for Irish fishermen and for the whole industry. We all know this is a difficult one, however. Some 35% of the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will double-check, but I believe the intention is that the commission on care will be established next year. It is long overdue. The number of elderly people in the country is rising all the time and we need to make sure they are cared for properly in their own home and in their community whenever possible. I add my thoughts those of Deputy Ryan with regard to Christmas.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Guirke for telling me about Conor Jordan and the difference that companion dog has made in his life. I have seen that with people who have been provided with a companion dog and the amazing difference it can make. I am not sure what the situation is regarding Government funding for those organisations but I am happy to check it out and see if there is something we can do.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Gannon for raising this matter. I am familiar with the Keltoi centre, it being a service located in my constituency, but I am not up to date on the plans to reopen and restore it to its former use. I will get an update from the Minister of State, Deputy Frankie Feighan, who is responsible for this matter, and forward it to the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Doherty also raised this matter and I gave him a detailed response. Perhaps Deputy Boyd Barrett was not present at the time. As he knows, the majority of students are not paid. However, nursing students are paid in their pre-registration year in recognition of the fact that they are among a small group of students who do valuable work for which they should be paid. A review of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It would not be worth a euro to any student nurse. What is done will be done by us.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am advised that the Bill will be taken in the next session, that is, the spring session of 2021.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure if I have been in that hotel or at that golf course. Maybe I have, but people over the past couple of weeks have been placing me in all sorts of places I have not been. Perhaps this is one of the latest examples, but that does not matter. The task force has been established and its work is under way. Whether it can be extended to include the wider area is something about...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The straight answer is, it depends on the scheme. For example, staff who have been laid off will retain the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, regardless of what their employers decide to do in terms of reopening. They have to be available for work, but that payment will not be taken away from them while they are laid off. The employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, is based on a...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Recently, the Government approved the draft 12th action plan to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers responding to the 2014 ruling in the Louise O'Keeffe case. In Mr. Justice O'Neill's review of 19 cases that had not been successful in their applications to the ex gratiascheme, he concluded that 13 were entitled to a payment from the scheme. Sixteen offers of payment have now been...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is an important day on which the Deputy raises these disability issues. I thank him for raising them and I would be interested in seeing a copy of that survey if he wants to pass it on to my office later on. When I was elected Taoiseach three years or so ago, one of the things I said we would do on the first day I was elected was ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, about the timelines but it is something we intend to do. There are many countries, for example, in eastern Europe, that nobody would argue have better conditions or services for people with disabilities than Ireland and they signed the convention ten and 20 years ago because they just signed it. Our...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. On foot of him raising the matter with me in the Dáil a few weeks ago, I sought and received a written report on that matter, which I have read and raised with the Minister for Health personally and with his Secretary General. I would be happy to send the Deputy a copy of the report that I received, which is an overview of what occurred and an outline of what will...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The rights and wrong of the bank bailout and guarantee could be and, no doubt, will be debated for decades but I am certain that, had they not been bailed out, all of those staff would have lost their jobs ten or 12 years ago. That is exactly what happened to the staff at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and other banks which were allowed to fail. The banking sector is changing, like many...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: When we think about the history and economy of the midlands, certainly for most of the past hundred years it has been dominated by two semi-State bodies, namely, ESB and Bord na Móna. They have provided well-paid and secure jobs that, in turn, create other jobs because of spending in the local economy by people who work in the ESB and Bord na Móna. That is going to change as we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, informs me that the current planning permission for the two sites include an obligation to decommission the power plants and remediate the sites by the end of 2022. Prior to any development opportunity taking place, the ESB must satisfy the legal obligation to remediate the existing sites. In addition, I understand that the power plant equipment cannot be...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Those are valid and good questions and I do not necessarily have answers to them all. The Deputy deserves answers to them and I will make sure he gets them. To answer the questions I can answer, the Government is in control. The Cabinet is in control and makes decisions based on advice, as it should. The Minister for Health is the lead Minister when it comes to the vaccine programme, as...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. On the issue of companies providing the vaccine privately, it is a matter we will have to examine. We certainly would not want it to undermine in any way our programme of vaccination, which will be free of charge and based on need. It might be the case, however, that the company that produces the vaccine will want to vaccinate its own staff. We would have to think long...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Throughout the course of 2020 and this pandemic we have seen nurses and midwives doing an extraordinary job in our health service, as indeed have all healthcare workers, including doctors, therapists, cleaners, porters, people working in our laboratories and people working in administration, without whom no front-line worker could do his or her job....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. Praise, applause and kind words do not pay any bills or butter any parsnips. I am very aware of that. I am as aware of it as the Deputy is. That is why we have ensured our healthcare workers in Ireland are better paid than is the case in many European countries, such as the United Kingdom and in Northern Ireland where they went on strike not very long ago and where the...