Results 11,461-11,480 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (27 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy McDonald is making political charges and trying to enter into an ideological debate, but the charge does not stand. If it was the case that the Government believed only the market could produce solutions, we would not have funded the construction and purchase of 9,000 new social houses last year.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (27 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We would not have brought forward rent controls and a vacant site levy. All of these things are interventionist, including the building of thousands of units of social housing every year-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (27 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----expanding the social housing stock, introducing rent caps and a derelict site levy. They all accept that the market does not provide all of the solutions. We would not do these things if we thought the market could provide all of the solutions. We do not agree with the rent tax credit which Sinn Féin proposes. We wanted to reduce income taxes for all workers, which is what we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (27 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Before I answer the Deputy's question, I beg the indulgence of the House to take this opportunity to extend my condolences to the family of Laura Brennan, whose service of remembrance is taking place in Ennis today. As Deputies will know, she died from cervical cancer but worked closely with the health service to become a powerful advocate for HPV vaccination and, because of her, we were...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: European Council Meetings (27 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I attended a meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March 2019. As part of its work the Council prepared the EU-China summit to be held on 9 April 2019. In this regard, we exchanged views on overall relations with China, including trade, in the global context.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: My answer to the Deputy's question is: no, I do not agree.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is my general practice to answer the questions in the sequence in which they are asked. As I do not want to be accused of not answering some important questions, I might slightly divert from that.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have been asked several times by Deputy Micheál Martin and others to disclose what was said by whom at a European Council meeting. I cannot do that. The European Council operates under similar rules to a cabinet.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is not right nor is it possible for me to come in here and say that Chancellor Merkel said that or President Macron said this. It is not how the European Council works nor is it how it should work. If it has been reported that Chancellor Merkel said, "Get on with it", I can say that is not the case. On a no-deal Brexit, the fact that I neither confirm nor affirm something that somebody...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am not at liberty to say who said what at a European Council meeting any more than I am at liberty to say who said what at a Cabinet meeting. For anyone who does follow this session of a chamber, if anybody goes on the radio or television and tries to assert that a non-denial of something that somebody is alleged to have said at a European Council by me is confirmation, it is not. Those...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have not.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I do not think any Minister has, but at official level-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----I am sure there have been discussions about what might be done in different hypothetical scenarios.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: They are absolutely on that level. I get accused of not answering questions.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: When I refuse to affirm the many conspiracy theories of the Leader of the Opposition, I am accused of not answering any questions.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I did not say "rough plan".

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is hearing things and by hearing things it feeds his conspiracy theories. I said there were rough preliminary discussions.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Discussions are not a plan.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (26 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: It is a matter of concern to me that the Deputy actually hears things and by hearing things they feed his conspiracy theories.