Results 11,181-11,200 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----because we constantly heard otherwise. We should not forget what is involved. This programme is about extending high-speed broadband to over 500,000 homes, farms and businesses. It is a major project, possibly the biggest investment ever made in rural Ireland and possibly as important as rural electrification. It is not going to be done cheaply and quickly. As already stated, we need...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue again. Back in 2012 when the national broadband plan was announced, only about 20% of homes, businesses and farms in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband. By the time this Fine Gael-Independent Government came to office that was at 50%. It is now up to 75%.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The national broadband plan as a policy driven by private investment has brought about a situation where the number of-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I will start again.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I would like to start again.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I again thank the Deputy for raising this important issue which is of huge interest to people in rural Ireland and all parts of Ireland. Back in 2012 when the national broadband plan was announced, only about 20% of homes, businesses and farms in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband. By the time this Fine Gael-Independent Government came to office that was at 50%. It is now up around...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Many people are opposed to private investment in communications but it has delivered 75% coverage already at no cost to the taxpayer. Now is the point when the Government needs to intervene to ensure that the next 25%, 540,000 homes, farms and businesses across Ireland, over 1 million people, are connected to high-speed broadband. I am happy to confirm and clarify one or two things that...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thought I had answered Deputy McDonald's question but I will give my answer again. In public hospitals, patients will receive the same medicines. Whether they have VHI or any other form of private health insurance will not make any difference in public hospitals. Patients will continue to receive the same medicines. What happens in private hospitals is not under our control. I do not...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: My apologies, I meant reimbursed. On Deputy Howlin's question on support staff, the Government will of course honour its agreements. There may be different interpretations as to what the agreement says and how it is to be implemented, but we will of course honour agreements made with staff. Deputy Burton asked about memorandums. To the best of my recollection there was a memo last...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Deputies will always talk over us when we talk about solutions. They are not interested in them-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: That is my experience anyway. There are a number of solutions to outpatient waiting times. There are issues to be looked at in the following areas: making sure referrals are appropriate; providing additional capacity in clinics; ensuring the ratios are correct in making an adequate number of slots for new patients rather than having patients returning more frequently than is medically...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to point out again that so far this year 23 new medicines have been approved for reimbursement. I do not know how many weeks have passed this year so far, perhaps 15 or 16, but that is more than one new medicine a week being approved by the HSE.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: They have been approved for reimbursement by the HSE. I do not know how there is a suggestion we have hit some sort of brick wall, as 23 new medicines this year so far, and it is only the middle of April, is quite a lot. They have been approved for reimbursement. Spending on medicines in Ireland by our public health service is not low. It is average to high. We already spend a lot of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It certainly has not all been spent, or anything remotely close to it. The target time for approvals is still four weeks. Deputy McDonald mentioned many of the problems and failings that exist in our health service and she was totally within her rights to do so. On the same basis, for balance and accuracy, it is worth pointing out some of the good things happening in our public health...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Yes; not entirely but in part. It is working in a very different model to what was done in the past.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: There is more to that story than Deputy Martin's negotiating team told him. I will tell him about it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Extra beds are being provided in the system, again reversing a Fianna Fáil policy on this occasion of taking hospital beds out of the system. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in government, as Deputies will remember, even before the financial crisis started to reduce the number of beds in the hospital system. We have been reversing that for the past couple of years. It is making a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have not finished my reply.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It does take longer to answer questions and than to ask them, in fairness.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (16 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It was not.