Results 8,981-9,000 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is absolutely right in his initial comments that businesses need money to restart. That is why rates are being waived for three months and businesses can reclaim their rates from 2019. Businesses that are reopening can claim up to €10,000 worth of their rates from 2019, so it is effectively a rates rebate. Some 80% of businesses in Ireland pay less than €10,000 a...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I will indeed ask the HSE to produce a roadmap on testing. It may have done that already. There are lots of documents being developed all the time and lots of drafts that people will be aware of, but that would be a useful thing for the HSE to do and I will certainly take that up with the HSE CEO. On the Deputy's final point, there are about 40 laboratories now that can test for Covid....

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is absolutely right: the quicker we can turn around the tests, the better we can do on contact tracing. I should point out, however, that contact tracing can and does start before the tests come back, so if somebody is a suspected case, the contact tracing can be started even before the test comes back. That is what is commonly done in South Korea and other jurisdictions.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My thanks to Deputy Murphy - I will certainly do my best. In answer to Deputy Murphy's first question, I cannot confirm it. A period of 24 hours is extremely difficult to achieve. It is almost impossible for tests that are sent to Germany, because they have to be flown to Germany. However, turnaround times are improving and they will improve further. I think people accept that there...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I reject the Deputy's contention. I was not glib and nor did I sweep anything under the carpet. I gave him a straight answer to a straight question as to whether I accept the democratic legitimacy of opinion polls. No, I do not. If the Deputy did, I imagine he would vote for me as Taoiseach because apparently that is what the latest opinion poll says the public wants. Opinion polls are...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Again, I think everybody in the House knows that these are rhetorical questions. The Deputy asked me if I can give a commitment that this payment will not be ended until the pandemic will end. Does the Deputy know when the pandemic will end?

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: No, he does not.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Exactly. Of course it is impossible to give a commitment about the pandemic ending when nobody knows when the pandemic will end. It is a rhetorical question, not a serious one, designed to get press coverage, not to get a serious answer.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: Democratic legitimacy does not derive from opinion polls, whether it is a door-to-door survey or online and no matter who does it. In a democracy, and this is a democracy, legitimacy does not derive from opinion polls of any sort carried out by anyone. Sometimes I wish they did because, as the Deputy will know, my own experience is one of doing much better in opinion polls than in real...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for her questions. Our strategy is to have the capacity to test 100,000 people per week-----

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: -----and to do so with a rapid turnaround, followed by rapid and aggressive tracing. That is not contrary to the medical advice or the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, as the Deputy contends. The testing centres have been underutilised in the past couple of weeks because of the clinical criteria for testing. Now that they have been relaxed by the NPHET and the CMO, I expect to...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The decision on the criteria for testing is entirely one for the CMO and the NPHET. The CMO is best placed to answer that question. It is not a Government decision at all in any way. On the three-week interval, the World Health Organization recommends two and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, recommends four. The incubation period is between five and 11...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I believe I answered that question in response to Deputy McDonald. We acknowledge that this payment is unprecedented, is one of the highest in the world and cannot go on forever as that would not be affordable for taxpayers, but we also acknowledge that it cannot be removed until people have the opportunity to return to their jobs. Lots of people will not have that...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: On a point of order, I would have been happy to answer some of Deputy Kelly's questions had I been allowed time to do so.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: If I was a cynical man, I would think the Deputy asked me questions he knows I cannot answer so that he could then accuse me of not answering them.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy asked me questions about what happened at meetings I do not attend. The Deputy knows I cannot answer.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I am not all-seeing and all-knowing.

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have them. How can I publish them when I do not have them?

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: A plan for what?

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am afraid I cannot confirm those exact numbers. I do not have them in front of me but they may well be correct. They certainly sound like they are correct. The definition of a household or a bubble, as some countries term it, is not unique to Ireland. Essentially from a public health point of view, someone's household or bubble is the people he or she lives with....