Results 9,841-9,860 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: No, there is not always one. Switching to electric vehicles is an important part of the low-carbon transition. The Government will continue to help individual motorists who want to make the switch to an electric vehicle. We have allocated €8 million in the budget to maintain grants at their current levels for individuals purchasing electric cars. This is in addition to the planned...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Other Governments failed to do so. There was an abortive attempt to build a national children's hospital at the Mater Hospital that failed. Other Governments failed to deliver this project.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: This Government is delivering it. I appreciate that sometimes when Governments fail, it is not necessarily their fault, but I am unsure whether Deputy Martin acknowledges that too often. The target for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles is ambitious. It is no secret that many people at official level thought it too ambitious, but often we are criticised for not...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together. The Cabinet committee on the environment was established in July when the Government reorganised the Cabinet committee structures. It covers issues relating to the environment, including climate action and the implementation of the Government's climate action plan. The need for an all-of-government approach to climate action is obvious....

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for their questions. The word "challenge" was not the correct term for me to use with respect to the national broadband plan. Imagine sought an extension and this caused a delay at that point. It wanted to use the extension to submit additional maps and so on. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no revision to the State intervention area. The national...

Finance Bill 2019: Financial Resolution (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I move: THAT Chapter 2 of Part 29 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (No. 39 of 1997), as amended by Committee Stage amendments 25, 26, 27 and 28, which contains provisions for allowances and credits for scientific and certain other research, be amended in the manner and to the extent specified in the Act giving effect to this Resolution.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure met yesterday, 4 November. It works to ensure a co-ordinated approach in the areas of infrastructure, investment and delivery, Project Ireland 2040 and Rebuilding Ireland. Significant work is under way across each of these areas covered by the committee through Departments, agencies and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding Clonmel hospital, which I know is very severely overcrowded at the moment, a new bed block is under construction there and we will get it open as soon as we possibly can once construction is finished.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: As for Limerick, as Deputies will be aware, a new emergency department, perhaps the most modern in the country, is open and functioning; a new block, the Leben block, opened two or three years ago; a further block of 60 beds is under construction and should open next year; and another block of 96 beds is planned to be built after that. Deputy Healy, I think, called for the reopening of the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----any emergency departments. In fact, they say we should further consolidate them because modern emergency care can only be provided properly in a relatively small number of large centres rather than a large number of small centres. The latter might have worked in the past, when medicine was different, but it will not work in the future. The mid-west and the north east tell different...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I assure the Deputy there is absolutely no need for a supplementary budget. The HSE will get an extra €1 billion next year.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: This will be the biggest budget the HSE has ever had and a very high one relative to other countries per capita-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----so that will not be necessary. The Deputy thinks the solution to hospital overcrowding is higher taxes; it is not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The solution is more beds, more funding for fair deal, more home care packages and investment in primary care and public health, all of which is being done.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----have been recruited. Not only have those who have left been replaced, extra staff have been hired on top of that. What is no longer permitted is HSE managers taking on staff if they do not have the budget to pay them. That is the norm across the public service.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: They should not recruit people they do not have a budget to pay for.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy asked some very specific questions about CHO 1 and Letterkenny University Hospital. I am afraid I do not have the necessary details in order to give him answers on that, but I will ask the Minister for Health to do so via correspondence. I can, however, comment on the wider picture. There is no recruitment embargo or ban in the HSE. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 more...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: An embargo would mean nobody was being recruited or replaced, which is definitely not the case.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: People are being-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: People are being-----