Results 961-980 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: When you look at Government spending, you cannot just look at capital expenditure; you also have to look at current expenditure. That covers areas like social protection, education and healthcare. Most of our spending is current, not capital. When you look at capital projects, you cannot just look at the ones valued at more than €200 million. You have to look at them in the round....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Every Minister around the Cabinet table looked for more in the budget package - whether on the tax side or the spending side. The Head of the Government - the Taoiseach - looked for more in the budget package than was possible. That is the reality of putting a budget together. Every agency, every Department and every Minister including the Department of the Taoiseach and the Taoiseach-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The answer is "Yes." The answer is that was the case for every agency, every Department, every Minister and every Minister of State in the entire Government. That has always been the case. That is how budgets are done. People make a bid for a large amount of money, and they only get a fraction of what they ask for.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: That is how budgets are done. The Deputy's use of the words "recruitment embargo" is deliberately misleading. As always, she is misleading the public.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: An embargo is a ban on recruitment. There is no ban on recruitment.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The HSE will allowed to increase its total number of staff next year by 2,000. Where there is a restriction it is only where the HSE has already hired the number of people it is allowed to hire for a grade.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: When we allocate money for therapists, psychologists and consultants I do not want to see that money being diverted to hire extra managers, administrators and doctors who are underqualified. That has to stop.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is of enormous importance to people in counties Cork and Waterford and the other parts of the country affected by flooding, not just in the past few weeks but also in recent years. I had the chance to visit Midleton last week, which is a town I know well. I have seen a lot of flood damage in my time, but this at a different scale. The...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I was struck by some of the people I met, who told me they were affected by the floods in 2015. Nobody could give them a guarantee it would not happen again in a few months' or a few years' time, long before the flood relief scheme is in place. We will push that as quickly as we can. We have 50 done. They worked in Bandon, Douglas, Togher and in the Tolka in Dublin. We know they work,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: The answer to the Deputy's question is that the Government makes these decisions. The Government acts collectively, signed off on the budget as a collective and accepts collective responsibility for the budget, including the health dimension of it, and ultimately, of course, it is a decision of the Dáil because it is the Dáil that votes on Estimates and it is the only body that...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Offices (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am sorry but I will have to come back to the Deputy on that.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Offices (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Dillon raised the really important role of the tourism industry in our economy and society. I remember very well that back in 2011, when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, we had just experienced an appalling economic crash, with mass unemployment, mass emigration, empty houses and falling incomes. Three industries lifted us out of that, namely, the multinationals,...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their comments. It is important, when we engage with our European partners in the 27 member states of the European Union, that we always try to understand the positions they are coming from. We may disagree, we may criticise each other and we may compromise but shouting and pointing the finger really does not work in international affairs or in forums such as the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We need to keep channels of communication open. It would be of no advantage to Palestine to throw out the Israeli ambassador. There would be no advantage to Ukraine in throwing out the Russian ambassador-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----but it would cut us off. We need to be able to talk to countries, particularly countries where we have citizens and people, because we need to make sure they are protected.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Offices (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 20, inclusive, together. The economic policy unit is part of the economic division of the Department. The unit assists me, as Taoiseach, in achieving sustainable and balanced economic growth and in advancing the Government’s economic priorities. The unit also advises me on a broad range of economic policy issues and provides me with briefing...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 15, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments and considers policy matters in relation to the EU and international issues. The committee met most recently on 2 October, when it reflected on the attendance of meetings at the UN high level week in...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Murnane O'Connor raised the issue of the school building programme, with particular relevance to County Carlow. We have an extensive school building programme under way throughout the country. More than €1 billion per year is spent on new schools, extensions and refurbishments. In my constituency last Friday I had the privilege...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Healy-Rae. I will certainly speak to the Minister of State about it. In the round, decongregation does work. Not having people living in institutions and instead living in small houses or community houses does work better. I know the difficulties it can cause, particularly if people have become settled in a community. As the Deputy said, it does not have to be the case...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Oct 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on children and education oversees the implementation of commitments in the programme for Government in the area of children and education, including further and higher education, with a specific focus on child poverty and well-being. The Cabinet committee on children and education met on Thursday, 13...