Results 8,861-8,880 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Expenditure (16 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My Department has no spend on social media monitoring in 2018 and 2019.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The fiscal rules, as the Deputy will be aware from her time as an MEP, always had provision to be relaxed in circumstances like this. They were never what the opponents made them out to be-----

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Indeed, they were relaxed and we will borrow something like €30 billion this year - maybe 10% of GDP - the largest deficit in a very long time. We are certainly not being shy when it comes to spending and borrowing money on behalf of future generations to get us through this crisis. There is in place a rates waiver for three months, tax liabilities are being warehoused, and there is...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy very much. I am going to tell her because I think it is important. Back in 2012 only about €700 million a year was spent on mental health. This year, for the first time it will be more than €1 billion. Since my party came to office, there has been a 44% increase in funding for mental health. Unfortunately, I doubt that future Governments will be able to...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I can assure the Deputy I will still be Taoiseach next week. Deputy Mattie McGrath does not need to say any sayonaras just yet. The contract for the private hospitals ends at the end of June, so it is really only a couple of weeks now. The HSE is now trying to negotiate a new arrangement with the private hospitals to allow them to step in if, for some reason, we need the beds at a later...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I may not have picked up exactly right on people consuming alcohol outdoors or on the street. My understanding is that it is not against the law. There may be by-laws in certain counties or city areas but in terms of national law, drinking alcohol in a public place in Ireland is not illegal. Being drunk and disorderly is; that is an entirely different thing. Just...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Or in the Phoenix Park for that matter. On the 2 m rule, as I mentioned earlier, while there are different advices from different bodies, everyone agrees that a distance of 2 m is safer than one of 1 m and a distance of 3 m would be safer again. A distance of 1 m provides about 70% or 80% protection from somebody who is carrying the virus. A distance of 2 m provides closer to 95%...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I earlier answered questions on the 2 m rule so I might answer the Deputy's other questions now. The plan as of now for the summer programme is that the Minister for Heath, Deputy Harris, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, will bring their proposals to Cabinet tomorrow. All things going to plan, we will sign off on that tomorrow, they will make the announcement and...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to examine the examples the Deputy gave. What I said, however, was that nobody would be worse off than they were before the pandemic as a consequence of the decision being made. I did not say that no one would be worse off than they were before the pandemic. Many people are worse off than they were before the pandemic. Most people who have lost their jobs, for example, are,...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have the full transcript in front of me, but I think, if I remember correctly, the Deputy was referring specifically to students and young people working part time, and not the kind of examples he gave. We have the same welfare system as we had before the pandemic. It is internationally and independently adjudicated to be one of the more generous welfare systems in the world and...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for bringing this petition. I will give it full and meaningful consideration over the next couple of days. I mean that. A lot of the legislation the Deputy mentioned was passed when we had a properly constituted Seanad. We do not have one now, so we are not in a position to enact primary legislation. This may require that. We cannot always bring in retrospective...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: We have considerable testing and tracing capacity now, with capacity to test 100,000 people a week and to trace many thousands of people which is not being used at the moment because of the low level of demand for it. It can be used if we need to do so in the future. The future will involve making sure that we have a very strong testing and tracing capacity, so that any important cases and...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Decisions will be made by the Government, not by individual airlines. The decisions we make will be co-ordinated with the European Commission and with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA. We need to bear in mind that we are all EU citizens. EU citizens have the freedom to travel, work and study anywhere in the European Union. We can bring in limitations based on public health...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. I do not want to say too much about it but I was rather taken aback to see Tyson Fury dropping the name of the person the Deputy mentioned in a video the other day as if he was not a person with quite a chequered history in this State and elsewhere. While I cannot comment on a particular Garda operation, I can certainly assure the Deputy that...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for his contribution. We all agree, accept and understand that racism exists in every society. It may take different forms but that makes it no less real. Sadly, Ireland is by no means immune to the scourge of racism. I had a very good engagement yesterday, as the Deputy mentioned, with Irish people who are black and of colour. That Zoom call went on for over an...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate what the Deputy said and that there are concerns about how the summer programme will work. As she said, these concerns exist before the announcement has been made. I anticipate and hope that should the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, get approval for the summer programme tomorrow, they will be able to answer...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: It is now more than 100 days since the first recorded case of Covid-19 in our State, 92 days since the first person died from the virus, and 91 days since we instituted the first set of measures to suppress its spread and protect as many people as possible from its deadly power. Today, as always, we think of the 1,695 people who, as of last night, have died from or with Covid-19, and a...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cycle to Work Scheme (9 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Since the introduction of the Cycle to Work scheme in January 2009, 100 applications have been made by staff of my Department. There is no discernible cost to my Department's vote in administering the Cycle to Work scheme, as the bicycles and equipment are paid for by way of salary sacrifice by those acquiring the bicycles. There are minor costs in processing forms and in carrying the...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. There is the reopening grant of up to €10,000 which is available to small businesses to help them reopen. Rates are waived for three months. There is the wage subsidy scheme, which pays a lot of the salaries and wages of people who work in small businesses. In terms of utilities, one only pays for the utilities one pays for, but the companies have agreed a...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My thanks to Deputy Pringle. As I mentioned earlier, direct provision is very often substandard. The kind of accommodation we want is at the McMahon standard level, where it is self-catering and where people have their own door. Much of direct provision is substandard and that needs to change. We have brought in good examples of accommodation in recent years, but obviously the whole...