Results 11,561-11,580 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy knows as well as I do that the factories are a private industry, that we do not control the beef factories and that the Government does not control the price of any commodity, whether it is a foodstuff, a material, oil or gas. The prices are determined on the markets, taking into account supply and demand. The Deputy should not tell me I do not get it while he pretends he does...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is appearing before a committee today, answering questions on the matter, and has produced those numbers for the committee. More than 18,000 new homes and apartments were built in Ireland last year. That is the highest number in any year for a decade and we will do better again this year. We have to because of the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate this is a very important issue and an issue of great concern to thousands of people who cross the Border every day in their cars, whether it is roughly 10,000 cross-Border workers going from North to South or South to North, whether it is students or just people passing through Northern Ireland on their way to and from Donegal, for example. It is an issue that the Government is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy and I recognise his support and that of his party for the omnibus Bill, which is likely to get through the Dáil today. As the Deputy will be aware, the omnibus Bill applies to this jurisdiction. We do not have the authority to pass laws in this place for Northern Ireland. Only the Northern Ireland Assembly has the authority to do that. The Northern Ireland...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, of course.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of disability services. The Government cares for people with disabilities and those who care for them. We have made it a priority in the past couple of years to improve rights and services for people with disabilities. I acknowledge that there is an enormous need and that there are many complex individual cases, with which we struggle....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am very aware of these issues, both the global issues affecting thousands of people across the country and the many individual cases. Like the Deputy, I have a constituency clinic and well understand the complexities of many individual cases. There is a story behind each one of them.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We are making a big difference. For example, consider the people with intellectual disabilities who have to live in congregated settings in institutions. There are 2,200 fewer people living in institutional congregated settings. They have been moved out into homes in the community, which is a big change. We have a multi-annual plan to continue that programme to move as many people as...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: There is funding in place to provide additional emergency places. The number in receipt of respite care services will increase by 8% this year.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Advertising Expenditure (6 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 67 together. A decision was taken in 2017 to fund and run cross-Government public information programmes centrally. As a result of this, in the period between Quarter 4 of 2017 and July 2018, a number of public information campaigns, aimed at improving citizens' lives, such as the Healthy Ireland campaign, the Project Ireland 2040 campaign and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The informal meeting in Lisbon with Prime Minister, António Costa, was exactly that. We got to know each other a little over the years and I was there on a personal visit. I told him I was there and he invited me over to his residence for a glass of wine and a chat. I brought the ambassador with me and he brought one of his officials with him. That...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: They may be exchanging legal texts among themselves and getting advice from each other's lawyers but that does not mean that they have any status in terms of the real negotiations that are going on in Brussels. In terms of drugs policy, we did not talk about it but I am aware of the decriminalisation model that was pursued in Portugal. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence...

Ceisteanna - Questions: All-Island Civic Dialogue (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I have the answers if I can have more time to continue.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to takes Questions Nos. 13 to 17, inclusive, together. I attach great importance to ongoing political engagement with our EU and international partners. I meet and speak regularly to my counterparts, bilaterally, at formal and informal meetings of the European Council and on the margins of international meetings such as the World Economic Forum which I attended earlier this...

Ceisteanna - Questions: All-Island Civic Dialogue (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: To clarify matters for Deputy Boyd Barrett, the position is that we are improving and increasing Garda resources all over the country. There are more gardaí, more armed support units, more vehicles and more investments and, as such, it should surprise no one that the Border region, or the northern division as the Garda calls it, should see increased deployment of gardaí and armed...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Issues (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for her questions. I cannot predict with absolute certainty or absolute clarity what will happen in the event of a no-deal Brexit. I do not believe that anybody can. All we can do is plan for different scenarios. I will say - and I am happy to say again - that we as a Government have made no plans for physical infrastructure, checks or controls on the land Border...

Ceisteanna - Questions: All-Island Civic Dialogue (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 12, inclusive, together. More than 400 political, business and civic society leaders from across the island attended the fifth plenary session of the all-island civic dialogue on Brexit in Dublin Castle on 15 February. This was a valuable opportunity to update participants on the Government’s position on the latest Brexit developments and on...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Issues (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. My Department works closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has overall responsibility for Brexit. A comprehensive set of Government structures has been put in place to ensure that all Departments and their agencies are engaged in detailed preparedness and contingency activities. Since well before the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thanks the Deputy for raising this issue. I know it was raised in the Dáil a week or two ago. I agree with the Deputy's sentiments. The most important thing now is to make sure that those children and adults affected get the health interventions they need and should have got in the past, and the education and welfare supports they need. I am informed that some have, but it has been...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I was not aware of that. I imagine it is in the interests of this House to provide content from this Chamber and the Seanad to the media. I imagine this is a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission.