Results 7,841-7,860 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

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

Leo Varadkar: On the meat plants, we very much acknowledge they are high risk environments. It is to do with the temperature, the airflow and so on and that is why there is a surveillance programme of testing in meat plants. Thankfully, the percentage of results coming back positive has so far been very small. On international travel, I confess I am not across things as much in the past few days as I...

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

Leo Varadkar: One of the issues we are going to have to consider is enforcement. As the Deputy knows, at the moment the requirement for a person to restrict his or her movements having come in from abroad is not mandatory. It is very highly advisory but not mandatory. Neither is it mandatory, however, for a person to restrict his or her movements if he or she is a close contact, which is a much higher...

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

Leo Varadkar: In my statement on Tuesday, I clearly and definitely accepted responsibility for this. I used the term "sole responsibility" and therefore I have not sought to blame anyone else. I have apologised for it, I have accounted for it and I have said that I accept responsibility for it. I have not been equivocal about that in any way. I do not have a copy of the document that I sent to Dr....

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

Leo Varadkar: I do not recall there being a second document. I only recall there being one document. As I have said, I do not, as standard, keep all of my text messages. I do not think most Members of this House do. Obviously, anything I consider to be a public record - for example, if somebody sends an email to my personal account, which happens from time to time - I forward to my official account,...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Bereavement Leave (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: An employee's entitlement to take time off in such circumstances depends on whether any provision exists in the employee’s contract of employment providing for such leave. For the vast majority of workers, conditions of employment, including bereavement leave provisions, are matters for negotiation between employers and employees. In the absence of any such provisions in an...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: SOLAS Training and Education Programmes (5 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 61 together. Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Construction Regulations 2013 certain categories of construction workers must hold a SOLAS Safe Pass card. With the imposition of public health restrictions last March, SOLAS, through its parent Department, requested an amendment to these Regulations to extend the four-year validity period of...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am keenly aware that businesses are making a massive sacrifice to protect their communities and I am committed to ensuring that the Government will offer as much assistance and support as possible. Budget 2021 provides a significant package of tax and expenditure measures to build the resilience of the economy and to help vulnerable but viable businesses across all sectors. The measures in...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: State Aid (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: State aid rules apply equally to all Member States and therefore are developed by the European Commission in consultation with Member States. As such, no national Government has sole discretion to make changes to these rules but each Member State provides input into the development of the rules be this through the State aid Modernisation process which is currently underway, State aid Fitness...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Grant Payments (4 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My Department has engaged with the relevant Local Authority on this matter and I am pleased to learn that the business in question has benefitted from both the Restart and Restart Grant Plus schemes. I am further advised that a 30% top-up payment has been awarded, which amounts to a total of €29,500 in grants paid to the business.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think anyone in this House seriously believes that Fine Gael got an extra MEP or 20 extra councillors because of anything to do with this.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: When local elections and European Parliament elections happen people make their judgment based on the candidate and probably the main reason we gained a seat in the European elections was the quality of our candidates with people like Mairead McGuinness, for example, getting a massive vote, and a new candidate like Maria Walsh getting elected. With regard to gaining an additional 20 council...

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is a fair question but I do not know. I know the right answer is-----

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I cannot point to a date. I know the Deputy is trying to imply that I only decided this was an error of judgment when it entered the public domain but I do not think that would be fair. The truth is that I did not think about it for months and months. There are lots of things on one's plate as Taoiseach and as party leader.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It did not contact me personally. It sent an email to my office in the week previously, asking if I had given a document to a different doctor.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I did not reply.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: No I did not, not at that point. It was not until the article was published, which was the Friday night, or whatever.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: What I was trying to do was right which was, as I explained earlier, to demonstrate that what was in the terms of agreement, in the 110 page document, was what had been substantially announced already and that it was a good agreement for GPs, for patients, for the health service in general, and that it was something that it should not oppose or be against.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know. I have not seen any of that.

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I believe the person who Deputy Connolly describes as the whistleblower was one of those people. I think that those messages were deplorable too, but I had never seen them until the last couple of days. They were not for me to anyone, they were between third parties, including people I did not know and had never met. I can be accountable for my actions, my messages and what I say, but I...

General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think that assessment is correct. The reason we concluded that agreement with the IMO not the NAGP, at a cost to the taxpayer of €210 million, was because we wanted to. We thought it was the right thing to restore funding to general practice to reverse FEMPI, to make it viable again, to stop the haemorrhage of young doctors from our country, and especially to bring in a...