Results 7,821-7,840 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. This is a matter on which I do not have a note in front of me but I am aware that it is a matter that the Minister for Health is aware of and I will ask him revert to the Deputy on it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and, as he may know, I am head of the ministerial committee on insurance that is trying to deal with some of these issues. The report from the Central Bank that came out this week is very welcome and is helping to give us more transparency about the pricing of insurance. It is a matter of concern that the cost of claims has not gone up as much as...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a good question and I am afraid I do not know the answer. I will have to check that out for the Deputy. As has been reported, efforts were made last week to resolve this dispute. The Workplace Relations Commission, which is an office of my Department, hosted talks involving the trade union, Mandate, and the liquidator, KPMG. Unfortunately, those talks did not come to a successful...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am very sorry to hear that the Deputy's constituent is waiting on that operation. A considerable amount of effort has gone in to reducing waiting times for scoliosis operations in the past couple of years. Extra staff have been hired and a new theatre in Crumlin has been provided. Lots of things are happening. I do not have the details of the individual case to which the Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am familiar with these devices and they really are extraordinary. They are changing and will change the way we manage diabetes. The idea is that somebody can wear a sensor that can monitor his or her blood sugar without strips, pin pricks and all the things we have been used to for decades. I am glad that it is available for people under the age of 21. I do not know why it is not...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid that I do not have any information to hand on that matter. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, to contact the Deputy.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The budget provides for an increase in funding for Irish Water next year. It is to be hoped that will allow some projects to be progressed. I cannot speak about that individual project because I do not know enough about it. I will certainly check it out.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I have read about in the past couple of weeks. It is appalling to see an increase in this crime of people stealing pets off other people, often older and vulnerable people. I do not have a pet but I know many people who do and I do not think anybody regards their cat or their dog to be property in the way they would a mobile phone or...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. As he mentioned, the Taoiseach met with the four Catholic archbishops to talk about what might be possible in the next couple of weeks. We are reluctant to change any of the regulations at the moment. I understand the point the Deputy is making about people being able to attend mass. In most countries it is allowed, for obvious reasons. It is allowed north of the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a fair question and I would love to be able to say here that on 1 December we will to move to level 3 or 2 and give people the ability to plan their lives and businesses, but I am not in a position to do that. This virus can change very quickly. We have seen in the course of a few days or a week the numbers increasing dramatically, and as the CMO explained at the committee the other...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I was not aware of that, but Pieta House is a mental health charity that provides excellent services and help for people who need help around mental health and suicide, in particular. As a Senator, Senator Doherty has no role in deciding what funding a charity receives. She is not a Minister and does not hold executive office. I do not think there is a conflict of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: This is really a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who administers that scheme through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. As is always the case with a grant scheme, there is a budget limit. There is no grant scheme that I am aware of where money is not limited. There has to be a limit on the budget and, therefore,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. If he can give me that information later, I will be happy to speak to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it in the afternoon. Given what I have learned in the last week, I will make sure that whatever the Deputy gives me is somehow scanned onto some sort of system so nobody can accuse him of being informal or something like that.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On the first part, we have the request from the Deputy’s party and we will be happy to give him any records we have. I might ask the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to answer the question on social protection.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. On the second point, HIQA has done a health technology assessment on rapid testing, which the Deputy may have seen. It was not as positive or favourable as I might have hoped it would be. There are definitely pros and cons to rapid testing and NPHET is very much working on that at the moment. I cannot say it will be ready by 1 December and that is probably unlikely,...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am familiar with this issue and I am aware of a constituent of mine who is in a similar position. I will speak to the Minister for Education about it again. What we would like to do, if possible, is to set up some sort of mechanism by which they could join the classroom from home, if that makes any sense. There would be a camera in the classroom and they could join...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has raised a few important issues. With regard to the flu vaccine, there is very high demand for it at present, which is encouraging. People who did not seek the flu vaccination in previous years are seeking to be vaccinated this year and this is a real positive. Supply is short, not just in Ireland but internationally. There is more on the way. No matter what happens, we will...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We do recognise that and I know the chief medical officer recognises it also. One of the real concerns we have during the pandemic is what people call secondary deaths, for example, people who have a heart attack not going to the hospital because they think it is overwhelmed and they do not want to bother the doctors and nurses, and perhaps people who have stroke symptoms delaying seeking...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am genuinely not aware of the dispute with the polers that the Deputy has mentioned. I will see the Minister, Deputy Ryan, this afternoon and I will mention to him that it was raised in the Dáil and he might be able to inform me, or inform the Deputy directly, as to what is the difficulty. As the Deputy knows, the contract is given to National Broadband Ireland...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: What is that plan for?