Results 8,361-8,380 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: As I mentioned earlier, in the past couple of days we passed the 1 million mark. One million Covid PCR tests have been carried out in Ireland. That is a considerable achievement. Once again, I express my gratitude to and appreciation for the HSE staff and laboratory staff given the work they have done. We do have mobile testing centres. They can be set up quite quickly. One was set...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am sorry but I do not have information on that.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. Everyone in this House appreciates the terrible impact that Covid-19 has had on many people's mental health ranging from worrying about the virus to social isolation to people's loss of their jobs. That is something we specifically mention and put in the Covid plan released on Tuesday. This year, for the first time ever, the budget for mental health will exceed...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Collins. I understand it was a requirement under European law that we bring in a penalty points-type system for the enforcement of fishery protection law, so it had to come in sooner or later. I understand that the Taoiseach, in his capacity as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for a brief period of time, signed those regulations into law. The procedure, as the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies. I will be honest with them and say that I am not an expert on the Bill but I understand that there will be a provision in it for community structures in particular. It is very welcome that the Bill is the policing and community safety Bill. For the first time, we are seeing the words "policing" and "community safety" in the title of legislation and that speaks to the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: From the way the Deputy is speaking, one would not think that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission was a Government agency. It is a Government agency under my Department that carried out the investigation and released a statement only in the past hour. Rather than criticising us, Deputy Doherty should at least welcome the fact that an agency under my Department took this...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will certain say to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, that Deputy Smith has raised this again. I have seen some individual queries of constituents of mine who are finding it difficult to access their welfare entitlements. As is often the case, everyone's situation is different and that can complicate matters, but we will try to help as best we...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Government is committed to a referendum on the right to housing. That will happen during the term of this Dáil. There is no date set for it. Obviously, we have to agree the wording, because any time we amend the Constitution the wording that we put in is then interpreted by the courts in a way that is superior to any law that we pass here. We need to ensure that we get the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid I do not have a date on that. I will ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, to get back to Deputy Kenny on it. It is something that the Government has committed to doing. We want to get it done both in terms of legislation and the programme itself. I have no wish to give Deputy Kenny an untrue answer without knowing what the answer is. I will certainly ask the Minister...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: In fairness, Deputy Harris is now the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education so I would not expect him to be up to date on it, although he probably does know.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have it in front of me, to be honest. However, the legislative programme was agreed and published by Government on Tuesday. It includes 30 discrete items of legislation that will be published before Christmas and, with the Deputy's co-operation, perhaps even enacted by Christmas. It includes some major legislation. Examples include the climate action Bill, which is a big part of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of forestry. The Government is committed to the last Government's plan to increase dramatically the amount of forestry in our country. This will be beneficial for both climate action and rural and regional development. I have taken note of the Deputy's suggestions and I will let the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, know about them. I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We certainly do not want to import timber from elsewhere when we could be providing it for ourselves. As I understand it, the Department needs two things: new legislation and additional staff to deal with appeals and applications. The legislation is being developed and we expect to have it within this session. This work is being led by the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. With regard...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. As he mentioned, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, provided an extra €500,000 to promote Kildare and encourage people to take a break there and visit the county because, as we all know, it is very much open for business. The money is being routed through Fáilte Ireland because it is a State agency and, for obvious reasons of corporate governance and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. The Government is working as one and has been since it formed. I appreciate that there are people who are opposed to this Government and do not want it to last. That does not include the Deputy, but it does include others. Those people will do their best to stoke up, invent and exaggerate any differences that may occur between different politicians and parties. I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate from where the Deputy is coming and understand his sentiments. What the Deputy will hear, and is hearing, from the Government is one message that we have agreed collectively. He will hear lots of different voices explaining that message and that is what has been seen over the past couple of days. On Tuesday, we agreed and published a Government plan to deal with Covid for the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have any details on that particular cluster nor on the means of staff getting to work, but I will make some enquiries and respond to the Deputy later, if possible. Deputy Doherty can spin out as many conspiracy theories as he likes. The message is very clear: if public health officials or the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, recommend or order a business to close, then it should...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is a clever person. He knows the numbers. He said that there have been very few clusters and outbreaks in pubs.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Of course there have not. They are closed, with the exception of those operating as restaurants.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Turning to capacity, we have the capacity to do 100,000 tests per week, and not per day, as Deputy Doherty's party leader said yesterday. She got her facts wrong once again. If we divide 100,000 by seven we get about 14,000 tests each day. Is it possible for us to do 14,000 tests in a day? Yes, it is. Have there been days where we have done 14,000 tests in one day? Yes, there have in...