Results 11,221-11,240 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: I think the Deputy is easily one of the brightest and most intelligent Members of this House. For that reason, he should do better than to take his speaking lines from a press release, released by a campaign organisation or NGO of any sort. The official measure of poverty in Ireland is consistent poverty. The Deputy has added to that people at risk of poverty and created a definition of...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: At risk of poverty is a relative measure related to the fact that there are people who earn 60% less than the median income. Unless everyone earns the same, and that could be nothing, there will always be a lot of people who earn 60% less than the median income. Consistent poverty is the official poverty rate in Ireland, recognised broadly because it is low income plus two forms of...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. There are lots of ways in which the Government is helping people to buy their own homes. The help-to-buy scheme helps people to get a deposit by getting some of their taxes back. Some 10,000 people have availed of that scheme, which has helped them to get a deposit to buy a new home. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan has helped thousands of people to get mortgages. In...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: To the Deputy's credit, he allocated funding for the relocation of the national maternity hospital to St. Vincent's hospital and he allocated a sum of €50 million for the Coombe and Rotunda hospitals. As we all know, allocating a sum is not the same as allocating the amount of money that will be required to do these projects. We will not know that figure until the tenders come in and...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: That is a change but it is a change for the better. It is not correct to claim credit for having allocated the money for something before actually knowing what it would cost.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: Everyone agreed with us three years ago that we would not sign off on major capital projects until the tenders came in and we know the price.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: That applies-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: That applies to all projects of every nature.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: It appears to be a sensible policy in my view.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: I would be delighted to answer these questions but I am not-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: The policy for a very long time has been to trilocate a national children's hospital with a maternity hospital and an adult hospital. Seven years ago, it was decided to do this at the St. James's Hospital site largely for medical and clinical reasons, not reasons based on cost or planning. The children's hospital is now under construction. It will be finished in 2022 and commissioned in 2023.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: We will need to start planning and design for the Coombe hospital to move to the adjacent site before that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will be aware that for the best part of 20 years, no new hospitals, with the exception arguably of one, were built.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: We are in a very different space today, with three hospitals under construction, namely, the national children's hospital, the national forensic mental health hospital in Portrane and the new national rehabilitation hospital in Dún Laoghaire.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: After a long time, therefore, without any new hospitals being built, there are now three projects in train.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: Apart from the Central Mental Hospital, which other hospital was built in the past 20 years?
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: Tullamore hospital was built 20 years ago.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: It is not far off 20 years in any event. Tallaght Hospital was built in 1999.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: I am often accused of spin. If, however, people think a new ward or wing constitutes a new hospital, they need to reconsider.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2019)
Leo Varadkar: Maternity services are very good, which we see from patient outcomes at all levels. The staff in maternity services, such as midwives, nurses, obstetricians and others, do a fabulous job. There are approximately 60,000 births every year but, while services are good, there will always be people who have an unsatisfactory or bad experience. It is important that we listen to those stories,...