Results 7,901-7,920 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: He did not get it because he was a friend of mine, he got it because he was president.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: Essentially, as I explained earlier, because I wanted to share it with him on a confidential basis. I wanted him to see there was nothing in the deal, or nothing of substance, that had not been publicly announced, that there was nothing in it worth opposing or agitating against and that it was a good agreement which was good for GPs, for general practice, for the public and patients and one...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: As the Cabinet memo of 9 April says, the engagement with the IMO had concluded. There were some minor changes subsequently. They were of no major significance. We did not have to go back to Cabinet on them. A press release had already been issued. The salient, commercially sensitive financial details had all been put out in the public domain on 4 April. The HSE launch was on 6 April...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: What I could have done would have been to bring him in for a formal briefing and gone through the contents of the document. That would have been the right way to do it.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: What I was doing, as I said earlier, was sharing this on a confidential basis. What the IMO wanted then was to go around the country and do its own meetings to share it with its members. I respect that is how it wanted to do it.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: That is a conversation between two other people. It is very difficult for me to comment on it.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: I do not know about trouble but certainly it would have been annoyed. I have seen a comment from a former president who expressed displeasure. I have seen comments from other members of the IMO, including council members, who said that this is a non-story. I have also seen comments from other council members saying that the NAGP was an amateur organisation that they thought this was such a...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: They did not get it in an official capacity. I provided it to them on a confidential basis in the way I did for the reasons I did. I explained that already.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: No I do not, I did not receive any advantage from it-----
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: -----as some people are alleging. He was not a political supporter of mine, certainly not at that time. I have already pointed out that many Members attended a demonstration that he organised outside the Dáil which was very critical of the Government. I gave it to him because he was president of the NAGP. I do not know what advantage it confers on someone who is president of the...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: The person is already the most senior officer in the organisation.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: I have very strong legal advice on this that the front page is defamatory, that a large part of the content of the article is defamatory, particularly in relation to the suggestion of criminality. The article claims that the benefit I got from this was that Dr. Ó Tuathail wrote nice tweets about me a year later. Not only is that defamatory it is also laughable. I received no benefit...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: As I think I explained, it is important to note the memo brought by the Minister for Health to the Cabinet on 9 February said very clearly that engagement with the IMO had concluded many days previously. The IMO in its own statement said-----
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: -----that the agreement had been made. It was launched by the HSE. It was then welcomed by me and by the Minister, Deputy Harris, at an event at a primary care centre on the Navan Road. It is always the case that an agreement, even after it has been made, even after engagement has been concluded, can be changed.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: I think it would depend on the circumstances, but this was not done by an official. It was done by me as a Minister, as Taoiseach, as Head of Government. I took the decision to do that.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: An official did not do this. This is something-----
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: Let me explain the answer.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: A Minister, as a member of Government, is the one who makes decisions. We had made a commitment to keep them engaged and informed of the process and the outcome of negotiations. I was honouring that political commitment and Government decision that was made. An official could only have done this if he or she had been directed to do it by a Minister. If he or she were not directed to do...
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: If he or she were not directed, yes.
- General Practitioner Contract: Statements (3 Nov 2020)
Leo Varadkar: If he or she were not directed by a Minister to do it, but the Minister in this case and the Prime Minister or chief Minister in this case was me, and I was doing this on foot of a Government decision and honouring a commitment made by the Government. I could have instructed an official to do it. I did not, but I could have.